MadelineMaureen

also think they have the wrong Li Ze Yu listed as the older A Sen. the one they have listed was born in '89, the one listed on all other platforms was born in '99.

pausing a about a 5th into episode 16 cause I need to sleep, and I know of I finish I'll be too frustrated with where we're left at to sleep well. Still loving the slow burn and yearning with them. soooo not looking forward to the inevitable separation.

I not trying to be harsh when I say this, but the ML's performance was the weakest of the actors in the main ensemble. I thought the brother had better chemistry with his love interest. Sadly even their friend when he was talking to the restaurant owner had better chemistry. The other part of the love triangle and the goofier friend felt more real as people. idk maybe it's because I reread the little blurb recently, but ML is described as "sunny, charismatic, and a social butterfly"...im sorry where was that?
Overall the show for me was a 6.5...heavily dinged for it's lack of closing down their f-stop(feels like they were in portrait mode on a phone camera aka extreme shallow depth of field) and always feeling like they are in a computer generated environment for about 80% of the show. OST was pretty solid. And the 3 main girls' storylines, arcs, and performances were also relatively solid. but overall chemistry, cinematography, visual effects, & production just didnt do it for me. Im hoping others enjoyed it more than I did. it wasnt bad, but it's not something I'll be revisiting or even remember by this time next year.

I really hate when shows tell you over and over again how smart a person is only for them to REPEATEDLY be the stupidest most unobservant person in the entire show. looking at you Shen Zhi Li...looking at you.

watching on Viki so only watched up to episode 25...i swear if Shen Zhi Li doesn't take her blinders off soon im going to scream.

pretty sure they have the wrong head shot for this actor....am I wrong? but that's Harry Song whose Chinese name is Song Qi, im pretty sure they are different people.

I believe they have the wrong Song Qi listed as Huang Bo. the one they have listed is Harry Song, who is Australian and at least the last time I checked looks nothing like Song Qi who is playing Huang Bo...so unless there is some crazy post edit happening or he had some work done...im thinking it's two very different people.
Im looking at the profile and it must be a case of wrong photo being used cause the person in the photo is Harry Song whose name is Song Qi, but the credits are the Song Qi in THIS show.

oh thank god the director knows how to direct and the Director of Photography is amazing. the struggle has been so real this last month. finally a show I can just focus on the performances without constantly going "what was the reason for that shot? why am I inside a shoe? why am i making direct eye contact with multiple characters?"

Once again begging the DP to close down the aperture. They are constantly floating un an out of focus world.

Dude sure talks a big game about an 8 year age differences when he's dealing with a 20 year age difference. Grandpa, sit down.

get the groomer off my screen 🤢 Gu for those confused

midway through episdoe 16. I have a few guesses based on just 2 scenes. When Meng Ting Hui's shoulder is exposed to Yin Qing and when she returns after her interrogation in the court for harming a man on the streets.
MTH is a long lost princess or someone of nobility of the fallen kingdom that Yin Qing belongs to. I recognized his walk under the mask...the guy working with Situ Xue in the cave.
Other things to back up him being man in mask. His words when he found out about MTH's past as a trafficked child. The fact he was constantly hanging out in the palace with ALL of the female servants and staff. He would easily be able to get information from them simply by being nearby. If any of them were to catch the eye of the Emperor and become a concubine he could easily influence her into taking him out. The more easy going a character tries to appear the less I trust them to be honest. He easily switches from playful to murderous intent with very little provocation. He has a network of "customers" throughout the city and palace. He has eyes and ears everywhere...all he has to do is pull a thread to move the players on the board.

Also Chancellor Gu...he 100% about to make sure his wife is out of the picture. He wants a son and that monk was like well she's a bit infertile soooooo. I just im confused now if Gu and Yin Qing are related to each other in mission/country of origin. Because I feel like Yin Qing would have been informed sooner of her connection to the trafficker had both groups been in it together.

Also MTH being a lost noble of a foreign nation is probably the only way to untwist the pretzel of the Emperor and her getting together without major political obstruction/objection. aka to end whatever war or coup that is brewing have the NEXT Emperor be of both kingdoms aka their child.

Oh no, second male lead too likeable, must make him a gang associate as to make him less likeable/less likely to be good for female lead. 🙃😆

considering the fact he knowingly trafficked female scholars to be abused and killed by men in the court, yeah we dont like him...him being married already is the least of his offenses.

Did Liang Yong Qi get veneers or caps on his teeth? I dont remember his teeth looking this....comic book villian like, prior to this. i dont know if it's because they are unnaturally white or that everytime his smiles i can see all 28 teeth, and the smile rarely reaches his eyes(most likely a character choice there) but it's...jarring. I have this is spoiler because it's not the kindest of observations to have, I just need to know im not crazy for thinking that it's odd to see all teeth when talking and for them to be that size and color. if you do comment please just put it in a spoiler tag as it's not really about the drama itself.

same director as OverDo.....hummmmm idk...

I forgot how frustrating the mother is. Instead of just talking to her daughter like an adult she just yells and whines and yells some more. The 'whoa is me' attitude is so frustrating. Even when she makes a good point I want to go against her because she's just that uncommunicative. No wonder her children don't listen to anything she says. I wouldn't want to either and I'm 36. Also the "he's just a kid" attitude...I'm just glad it didn't go the way of younger brother being the financial priority aka "we can't send you to university because we need to be able to send your brother".
PS. Dear iQIYI,
Please subtitle the written notes passed between characters and the text messages/emails on screen.

Really hoping we'll get to the adult timeline again soon. It's one thing to go back and forth it's a whole other thing for people in their 30s playing 15 year olds for the majority of a show. my suspension of disbelief can only hold out so long.

Who is the cinematographer on this? the iPhone portrait mode on EVERY SCENE is getting ridiculous. It's like they only had a few walls of sets so they had to green screen them into every environment outside of a classroom or house. Every single shot has a focus of a dream sequence making ot difficult to tell the difference between reality and imagination. The people in a shot shouldn't be the only thing in focus at all times. Please bring back medium shots that are in focus. All this shallow depth of field is just....well over used and losing it's punch.
I'm enjoying TXW's performance, crying my eyes out tbh, but as a photographer I just cant not see what im seeing.

is the one being called Ge by Peter's character the same one that the dancer was talking to in the cave with all the people in red?