Michelle Topham

Huang Yi is doing a brilliant job in the part though. Her character in this is like night and day compared to her character in Fate Chooses You, and she has slayed in both roles.

That's not a good rating on Douban. Anything below a 6 is looked at as "well below average". It's undeserved, it should be much higher, but Ren Min has had an army of haters since The Longest Promise, which she was brilliant in, and you can't fix stupid :)

Could not love this more :) And completely forgot that Ci Sha is still only 29 years old. He's doing an amazing job here portraying someone who is older, very mature and a badass with a sword or bow and arrow.

Love how handsome he is, in a very unusual, not "pretty boy" way.

Ren Min is perfectly cast as Jinzhao as well. The right mix of naivete and intelligence, and so wonderfully feisty.

Supporting cast is also doing a brilliant job supporting, and thrilled to see Huang Yi portraying a completely different type of character than her superb Zuo Ying Ying in Fate Chooses You, and being as wonderful as she was in that.

Wouldn't have pegged Winwin as much of an actor before this either, but he's nailing the role of Ye Xian. Someone you loath and feel sorry for all in the same thought.

So happy I started watching this much later than most people, as I now get to binge-watch many of the episodes :)

There is NO announcement as to an official release date. Stop lying. It makes you look stupid.

Tencent literally released character visuals a few hours ago WITHOUT a release date for the drama, because it has NOT been announced yet.

Yes, it MAY be released on May 25th, but until Tencent announces the official premiere date, nobody who doesn't work for them, or isn't involved in the production, knows when that release date will be.

Hadn't planned on watching this right now as I have so many dramas on the go, but a couple of people told me I would like it and they weren't wrong :)

Have loved Ren Min since The Longest Promise, and Ci Sha is always fabulous, and their performances here so far are superb. The writing, however, is even better as it grabs you right from the first minute.

Loving everything about this -- from the pretty opening sequence to the costumes, sets, cinematography, side characters, the scheming, the feisty FL, the somewhat brutal when he needs to be ML -- absolutely brilliant so far.

Big fan of the manga, read it several times. The drama has changed quite a few parts of the original drama in its adaptation but, for the most part, they work.

Nicely written, brilliantly acted, the pacing is fast, and I always love Satoh, but Kamishiraishi Mone is also perfect as Sakura as she does a superb job portraying the characteristics I loved about her in the manga ie: she's an idiot, but a loveable one :)

A stellar ensemble cast as well. A truly entertaining, excellent drama. Enjoyed this so much.

They have to be some of the most boring posters Tencent has ever released :) Was surprised when I saw them earlier this morning, as you have to zoom in really really close to even figure out which character is on the poster.

Yep. Agree with you on the "all talk no action" lot. That's the problem with a lot of the right-wing as well. Yammer, yammer, yammer, but when it comes to doing anything, they don't have the balls.

I use DDG as well, dumped Facebook about 4 years ago when they closed my account and asked me to record a video of myself holding a piece of paper with something written on it and send it to them in order to get my account back. Told them to eff themselves. Never looked back :)

Had Twitter. Got banned. Three times. For commenting the now-proven-without-a-doubt facts that the Covid "vaccine" did not stop the virus spreading or stop people catching it (our neighbor has 2 shots and 3 boosters and had Covid SIX times :), and that masks don't stop a virus. (live in Austria where we were mandated N95 masks for almost 2 years t be able to go anywhere -- Austria had the HIGHEST number of Covid cases per capita in the world :) I stayed at home if anywhere required a mask, traveled to 7 countries during Covid, didn't wear a mask ever, refused to get a "vaccine" and could NOT catch Covid if I licked door handles. Never did, even though I was tested almost weekly for 2 years. Also mandatory in Austria is you were "unvaccinated" and wanted to go anywhere.

Now have 3 X accounts. No problem with any of them. Love Elon.

And no, I don't have IG (well a business account that I never use) or Tik Tok either.

Yep. And it will get worse from here in New York (and in other blue states going down the same path, and they all ultimately will until they're savaged at the voting booth) as Mamdani (or Moron Zamboni as right-wing commentator Dave Rubin calls him :) is just going to double down on socialist, anti-Semitic, pro-Islamist Terrorist bullshit for the length of his term.

He proved that when he was running and God knows why anyone Jewish who voted for him didn't see that. Hell, I haven't set foot in New York in about two decades and I could see it a mile off. Wanted to knock that shit-eating smile off his smarmy, greasy face because of it.

I appreciate the thoughtful examples :), but I think you’re conflating commercial success with critical reception, and then using that overlap to argue Douban doesn’t matter, when it actually proves the opposite.

Here's why (and sorry for the long post, but I do know quite a lot about this as I've been well-educated by a couple of people in the Chinese drama industry for a long time :)

1.Douban isn’t a popularity contest; it’s a TASTE filter.
Pursuit of Jade and The First Frost were commercially massive, and I'm not denying that. But Douban scores reflect audience perception of QUALITY, not reach. A 6.4 for Pursuit of Jade in the context of a 55% market share then tells us a huge number of people watched it, but many found it flawed. That’s valuable information, and definitely not irrelevant.

2. High viewership + low Douban = large trust gap. For advertisers, investors, and award committees, a low Douban score on a hit drama raises a red flag -- ie: People watched it, but did they LIKE it?

That also then means future projects from the same team also may get eyeballs initially, but if the Douban pattern repeats, trust erodes, and future projects are in jeopardy of getting funding. Douban acts as what my Chinese friends call a "long-term reputation ledger".

3. You mentioned The Knockout and Joy of Life 2 and yep, both have both high Douban AND high viewership. And that is the GOLD STANDARD.

The Knockout will age like fine wine; Pursuit of Jade will age like a box office hit with mixed reviews — remembered for numbers, but not always for love.

4. Review bombing exists, but Douban’s algorithm and weighted votes mitigate it over time.

For instance, The First Frost’s 5.4 isn’t just from Hidden Love antis — it’s also from many neutral viewers who felt it didn’t meet expectations. (I watched the first 10 episodes or so, saw the flaws and dropped it as it didn't offer anything different than a hundred such dramas I'd watched before, except maybe cuter actors -- and that's where the non-Douban higher scores come in - for popular actors but not quality).

Douban isn’t perfect, but dismissing the entire platform because of one example is like dismissing Rotten Tomatoes because of *The Last Jedi* discourse. :)

5. Douban’s “preferences” you listed are actually just… quality markers.

Safe, low-risk dramas that “can’t be nitpicked” — you mean well-made, coherent productions? And historically realistic dramas with veterans — you mean acting and writing that hold up? That’s not a bias; that’s a standard. And it's a standard in entertainment industries all over the world.

Bottom line: Few people decide to watch a drama BECAUSE of Douban. But actors, directors, and producers absolutely check Douban to gauge whether their success is hollow or sustainable. And anyone who tells you they don't is lying to you :)

That's why, in China and that's where Douban is important, people ignore Douban if they only care about ad revenue (hint: NOBODY in the industry ignores Douban). But if they care about legacy, respect, and career longevity? Douban matters a great deal.

Chinese hedge fund High Flyer. Likely with ties to the CCP as, let's face it, any major company in China does have as its now mandatory for every listed company in China to include the CCP in their corporate governance. And, yes Deep Seek is storing personal data on anyone that uses their AI engine, and likely handing it over to the CCP.

But... ChatGPT has major contracts with the Pentagon, and hired former NSA chief to its board. Google and now Google Gemini has been handing over private information on its users to the U.S. government for literally decades (as has Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter before Elon bought it etc), and Gemini has a major contract with the U.S. Department of War. Google is also extremely nefarious when it comes to where your personal data ends up.

So I think anyone who uses AI and doesn't think all their searches/questions aren't being sent to some world government is naive. :)

ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google, Microsoft's AI etc are also woke, as they are programmed by lefties, so the information you get is always biased. The last time I used ChatGPT was when I asked it about information on Grokipedia, Elon's new encyclopedia built to rival extreme left-wing leaning Wikipedia.

It tried to tell me Grokipedia didn't exist, then when I gave it a link to Grokipedia, it then told me "it's not a reputable site, doesn't have many visitors and its Domain Rating (a score used to show the authority of a website) was low",

When I challenged it with the FACTS that it had a 77 Domain Rating (one of the highest DR's possible) and that it had around 9 million visits a month, both HUGE stats for a site that's barely 6 months old, it mumbled something anti-Grokipedia again. That's when I closed by ChatGPT account :), as the information it provides is biased.

I use DeepSeek as its an extremely fast, very reliable AI engine. And I don't care if the CCP is getting the information I input into it as, if they are, maybe they'll do something about the abysmal way Chinese dramas are marketed to the non-Chinese :)

You too :)

Just added this to my Watch List after seeing its Douban score is an utterly insulting 2.7 -- apparently, the Chinese HATED this with a passion, so I'm interested to see why the rating is so different on MDL :)

You're welcome. And I"m not meaning to lecture you :) but just ask any Chinese actor or director if they're concerned about Douban scores and, yep, they all are.

It's why I feel so bad for the actors in the recent Rebirth (Li Yun Rui etc) -- that damned thing just dropped to a 2.9 on Douban, with only about 9 dramas EVER earning that low. Imagine how they must feel to know that viewers have rated that drama as "insulting our intelligence, it's so bad". How sad, eh? :)

That's actually not true. Douban ratings are massively important, especially when it comes to a new drama from the same director/writer getting funding, or an actor who starred in a drama getting a new role, or not.

Here's why:

1) Douban ratings are notoriously difficult for studios to manipulate, as scores come from verified users. If you're not verified, you can't leave a rating, and that means studios can't pay people en masse to leave reviews. That's why, if a drama gets a good or bad rating on Douban, it's taken much more seriously than on other platforms.

Why do you think the studios push good Douban scores when their dramas receive them? It's very important for future funding.

Look at MDL for the reverse -- not remotely reputable ratings on here, as anyone can leave one, fan girls are all over the place leaving high ratings on terrible dramas just because their favorite actor is in it, and anyone can even sign up for 10 accounts if they want to so they can leave even more.

2) A good Douban score is a massively positive benchmark for a writer/director or actor, as it can inflate their "value" and so boost their career opportunities. A hit drama from a director or writer means studios are looking to fund other projects with the same people, and a hit drama with an actor or actress means future dramas starring them have a bigger chance of being successful. Studios will then start clamoring to cast them in their next project.

3). A Douban score is important for viewers who may not watch a drama in the first couple of weeks of release. Dramas with poor Douban scores often go on to notoriously do poorly in later viewing weeks, as a below 6 rating, for instance, generally signals to many Chinese viewers "don't bother, it's not worth watching", while those with high ratings tell people they're worth a watch.

International viewers are also increasingly taking notice of Douban scores, as more and more people learn how to navigate Chinese Internet, and so are avoiding dramas that have low ones.

I know there's a contingent of people on MDL who keep insisting Douban ratings aren't important, because they are disappointed their favorite dramas are being rated low, but that's simply not true. In China, they are very important.

Fight scenes are beautifully choreographed. So far, though, the drama isn't capturing my attention at all (on Episode 3 and finding it draggy). I am also not a fan of Chinese dramas with massive fight scenes where nobody dies. Stupidly unrealistic.

Will see how it goes, but I've watched so many of these and, so far at least, this one is disappointingly bland. A shame, as this was one of the ones I was looking forward to.

Yep. Insane isn't it? Let's face it though, the Dems and half the people who support them at this point are the Anti-Semitic Party, and NYC has become a dangerous Democratic sh*thole over the last few years, so is anyone with any morals really surprised? I'm just amazed so many Jews still live there.

As you know, I'm in Austria, and I've heard horror stories of Austrian Jews who "stuck it out" in the 1930s far longer than they should have done because they thought it would "get better". Newsflash: when it comes to Jews, sadly, it only ever seems to get worse.

I use DeepSeek as it's brilliant at Chinese translation (obviously) and it's engine has a very funny sense of humor. It's lightening fast too.

It also easily finds a lot of Chinese news about the entertainment industry and then translates it into English, so it's very useful. Especially for me in my line of work :)

I'll try to find the latest info it gave me on iQIYI and message it to you later on tonight.

BTW, it's free. You just sign up with an email address. Been using it for about a year. no complaints.

Hahahaha, I'm ridiculously obsessive about supporting artists/musicians/writers etc, because I've been one (a writer) for 30 years and it's a HUGE struggle to survive sometimes.

So I do my little part where I can -- even if it's letting a drama run on my phone while I'm making dinner or peeing :)