Meese

Yeah, that's how I mostly viewed it. The person asked for no spoilers so that's why I said just raised in the same household for awhile since I wasn't sure if that would be a spoiler.

I am wondering with the cold market in China if networks will look to pull in more international audiences to try to fill in some of the gap of potential lost revenue. Someone mentioned SAL being IQIYI's show to get more of an international audience and it seems to have been a success in that regards.

They are not siblings; technically they are adopted siblings but they were separated for quite awhile. He is the son of the dad's friend who died and got taken in by the dad. He was technically "adopted" in the family when she was born and they were raised in the same household for awhile but separated for quite awhile before reuniting. Hope that helps!

That's good to hear about SIL. I followed along on Reddit since I'm not connected directly to Chinese SM and it sounded like people were using the lower number of views against Esther in the start of the hate campaigns earlier this year and it sort of spiraled from there. I'm glad to hear it still did decent for Youku.

Yep, I'm pretty sure SIL was an example of where Esther being first billing was used against her when it didn't do great views wise. What I've learned about C-Ent is that people are so quick to say X, Y, Z were the stars of the show over the first billing, but it's the first billing that's pulling in the funding and relied on for the attention. That's why I feel for Esther who has a decent number of first billings under her because if a drama "flops", people pile on her. If it's a success, people still pile on her because they think someone else did better when she is the one putting her name out on the line for the drama.

I don't really like when people nitpick in general the first billing - the way I see it, they are the ones who are helping provide a platform for up and comers to show what they can do which should be a good thing; instead, people seem to love to tear down a lead if they think someone else did better. Investors aren't dumb - they choose first billing for a reason and (I mean this well intentioned) it's not necessarily because a person is the best of the best. EVERYONE, especially with idol dramas, has room to grow.

As a general note, I will be interested to track the number of new dramas that will be coming out and how many projects people will have, particularly as top billing. I'm wondering if you will get more occurrences like what is happening with HMH where he had 4 dramas air this year with 2 of them overlapping where investors just want to use big names, reducing opportunities for lesser known/not established names.

That is one of the reason why I get excited when YSX has a new drama - what will she be able to have her ML dance to this time 🤣🤣🤣. I also think it's cute because they usually end up doing a cover of one of her songs which is a nice gesture to her.

I think what annoys me for those sort of comments is that it seems like her ML's tend to respect Esther and give her credit for the work they put out together, yet it's so common for people to just hate on her or uplift the guy while bashing her and not giving her any credit for the drama when it is successful. There are definitely dramas out there with talented actors yet the chemistry just isn't there because at the end of the day, it does take two people to create chemistry and the overall story of a ROMANCE drama.

With how much hype he has around him right now, they would be dumb to not care about him moving forward.

Him learning the dance to Esther's song in Thai Sweet episode 6 was one of my favorite things. He took it so seriously.

I will forever love they created a mini pop group with a choreographed number with 3 former idols and He Yu who I think got a crash course in dancing this year from the group 🤣

Yeah, I was surprised when I heard Shine On Me was 36 episodes since it’s another modern drama and I think modern dramas focused on romance can get draggy.

For SaL, I think 1-3 more episode to give a bit more background earlier and the wedding scene would have been perfect.

Yes, she acts cute and will lean more into a “baby” voice at times. Her character, JM was written to be childish and cute around JZ in the novel. For her, it means giving him some levity in his otherwise too serious life while for him, indulging her childish antics was a way for him to feel like she was reliant on him. She does grow throughout the show, but she can come across cringey in the beginning. I’ve seen comments from non Esther fans say they didn’t mind her/liked her in this show while other people found her too cringe, so I would say if you do want to try it, go in knowing this and aware this might not be the show for you and you can just drop it.

Sometimes, the way they talk about her/her family's wealth, you would think they were all powerful and had unlimited money. As far as I know, her family doesn't have direct ties to the film industry so I don't know why they would want to throw a bunch of money in the entertainment business if that's not their background and if they were really that powerful/had enough money they can just be throwing it around to buy her roles/production, you would think she would have had the opportunity for bigger productions. I think I read LGIEF was her first and only S+ drama.

If you're talking about the Moon Cafe, MDL creates separate pages after every X number of comments. You can navigate through them at the top right of the page.

If this is in part directed to my comment down below, I didn't mean any harm by it. I was excited to see some more critical discussion coming from a well intentioned place and wanted to add my 2 cents in because I do see a lot of potential in her and she is growing as an actress. I like her in general and want her to continue to improve and keep giving us memorable dramas. As you pointed out, all actors/actresses have room to grow and I think fans who want her to succeed should be able to recognize where she can continue to improving while also acknowleding where she did well. I also did that for HY too to be fair in the comment.

For the people that come in here just to be miserable about her, it is tiring to see the same complaints over and over regarding her voice and the type of role she plays. Can it be said she is typecasted to play the cute roles? Sure, but if there keeps being characters written to act that way and she is chosen for the role because she has had success in the past with that type of character, why are people so pressed when she acts that way? Just skip the drama if that style isn't for you. Women seem so quick to put down other women as soon as they find the slightest thing they don't like and it's sad to see.

Lin Sui was great! He was a character they created that didn't exist in the novels. Mike did a great job playing him! I think his character did a great job in supporting the story, especially the way they portrayed him in the end.

Glad you liked the show!

I agree with this a lot. On my rewatch, I thought YSX had a bit more emotion than I initially thought in the beginning when I sort of knew more where JM's character was coming from (not to say it was great, but I could at least see the effort/intent), but yeah, I think her continuing to work on her microexpressions and even be better about using her arms/work on full body language will help a lot. When she did seem more self concious about looking pretty, I thought sometimes her arms got a bit limp at her sides while when she was in the more bubbly role, she was super comfortable with using her whole body to convey the bubbly character. To your point, I agree in general the concern for female idol actresses to "look pretty" is part of the reason for a lot of the "stiff" acting they are accused of because haters are going to use anything to hate so why not make sure you don't look "ugly".

I think in the accident/Nanjing arc when she stepped up more in the emotional scenes, she was more confortable with her arms and was also able to connect more to the story which helped her deliver the emotions better. The potential is definitely there. But yeah, I agree she can definitely deliver emotion through her voice which makes sense since she trained for voice acting.

And yeah, HY is definitely captivating to watch most of the time with his microexpressions and how he carries himself, but sometimes, the emotions via his voice seemed slightly off. I also noticed that usually he had more of a deeper, serious voice for JZ, but would sometimes slip into his more higher pitched, normal voice that in some scenes worked like when he got upset at LS for his review, but in others felt slightly off.

These are adorable cartoons: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8ytmhjX/

No, but he’s working undercover for some sort of law enforcement agency unofficially.

A romance drama should never be so serious that you are organizing a censorship takedown over a review 🙃🙃🙃.

Thank you Eve for being a positive light in this thread! I hope you know for us fellow SAL fans, your words in that review are beautiful and you are appreciated here!