Michelle Topham

The ensemble cast is, for the most part, extremely well-cast, with only one actor who jumps out as not having the skills necessary for the scene-heavy role, and one bit part actor whose performance was a bit over the top :) Throw in that the writing is also on point, that the pace moves extremely fast, that the costumes and sets are nicely done, and I think it's almost impossible to be bored in a minute of this. One of my favorites in quite a while in this genre.

Good news on this one too is it's supposed to be a happy ending, so, Yay! :)

My criticism has nothing to do with the character, although I think the female character is uninteresting as she's not remotely complex. She's also not inconsistent, as she has been this way from Episode 1, and it's now becoming uninteresting and predictable.

My criticism has to do with Wang He Run's portrayal of Xin Mie. It's shallow, and it's unauthentic, I can literally see her thought processes playing out through her brain as she acts certain scenes and considers how her character "should" act before doing just that. Even her tears aren't genuine, they're as fake as mine when I used to persuade my father to give me something I wanted and he had refused. That's not acting, that's role-playing or cos-playing, and she's excellent at that.

Ren doesn't do that, so when you analyze the scenes he's in with Wang He Run, he jumps off the screen as feeling those emotions he's portraying and she jumps off the screen as cos-playing them.

The problem is a large number of Chinese actresses are chosen for their looks and not their talent in these kinds of dramas (as are many younger male actors unfortunately as well), and it shows when they are given an FL role, and they don't have the skills to portray a main character with any authenticity or strength.

The ones who are talented tend to be older, have been in the industry for a long time, and are continually cast as they CAN act. Even when they're in their 40s, 50s and beyond. That's why many younger actresses slowly fade away in their 30s as, once their looks begin to fade, there isn't much left to bring to the table. Unfortunately, it appears Wang He Run is one of those.

And btw, maybe you can't see it, but I trained for 12 years under the RADA system in London (a world-renowned drama school, in case you haven't heard of it). I am the first to admit, I am a TERRIBLE actress, hence why, even after starting out my university degree with a degree in theater I dropped it midway through as I knew I would never make a living at it. But... I am trained to spot a poor, inauthentic actress who is just going through the motions when I see one and, unfortunately, in this case, that's the FL in this.

If you like her performance, good for you, I'm not here to tell you not to. But if you are looking for an authentic performance from an actress with talent, this one is not it.

Nope. I'm just as critical of male actors who don't have much talent and your take is just a lazy opinion pushed by a plethora of fans of "actresses" who would be laughed off the set of most western productions.

I see it all the time.

It's unimaginative, and nothing more than pushing the popularity of low-talent actresses because you think that "supports" them. It doesn't. It just makes them the laughing stock for the general public who watch their atrocious acting skills and then laugh at them -- and make fun of the fans who boost them.

Ratings usually go up after a drama ends and the people actually WATCHING it instead of the trolls downrating it because they don't like an actor/actress have disappeared :)

I thought it was just me :) I dislike the character so far and the actress is doing such a poor job with the role, she's making it even more dull. Like someone else said, could be the director (?), but I doubt it, as Wang He Run is pretty much the same in almost everything she stars in. Bland.

IMO, a different actress could have nailed the part by making Xin Mei more complex and, thus, more interesting, less shallow and bland, and less blank (she has an annoying habit of putting an expression on her face that makes her look mentally challenged at times -- seen it in ALL her dramas, and it's super annoying).

Instead, Wang He Run is obviously "acting" through almost every scene and, compared to Allen Ren's actual skills as he simply IS the character he's portraying, it's irritating.

Anyway, not going to spend my time dragging the actress :) I'm loving the drama, and just watching her scenes on 1.5 speed to get through them, and I rarely do that. But that's working for me :)

It has nothing to do with the speech and everything to do with the way she presents almost every scene though. You can see the wheels churning in her head as she "decides" how to play a certain scene, as if she's thinking "Now how would a person behave if they felt like this?" compared to Allen Ren who just IS the character he plays.

It's the difference between a talented actor, and one who is going through the motions. I've seen it in most of her dramas (not as much in Mysterious Lotus Casebook, although she pretty much acts like an over-the-top caricature in that one, it does work to some extent).

She was one of the big reasons I recently dropped My Bargain Queen, which isn't particularly good, but her performance in that is so grating, and she is given WAY too much screentime.

We'll have to disagree on her performance in this one :) For me, though, I'll be avoiding her dramas from now on once I've finished this (which I'm loving, except for her) as I find her inauthentic performance so annoying, and I rarely do that. (Only have 1 other actress I won't watch anything she stars in after her even more terrible performance in one recent drama, and one actor).

Those are the scenes that are her worst. Over the top, completely disingenuous, with no authenticity in her performance at all. You could just see the thoughts going through her head "Now WHAT should I look like here?" and then acting that way, compared to Ren who just IS the character he plays.

Yep, I've been watching the entire drama from about Episode 4 onwards hoping her performance gets better, but I was over it at the end of Episode 19 with that vitally important scene and how she handled it compared to Allen Ren.

And I'm not a particular Allen Ren fan, can take him or leave him although I seem to have watched most of his older dramas at least :), but he is inarguably the better actor.

I always feel sorry for so many of the talented Chinese male actors (and sure, there are plenty of untalented ones), as they must be annoyed when they are stuck with an FL whose talent doesn't remotely match theirs as, it's obvious right from the beginning of shooting, they will be forced to carry most scenes.

And again, I'm not a particular Dilraba fan (don't mind her, can take her or leave her, although I can easily admit she is very talented :), but you have to admit when talented male actors get an FL like her, they must be thrilled that they can actually bring their A-game to the set and she will match it.

Yep. So many dramas too nowadays have elements of various genres. Far less rigid than they used to be. Personally, I don't really care
what a drama is labelled, I just care if I enjoy it or not.

No, she doesn't. It's interesting too as ZKY is younger than WHR and without much professional experience, yet she's far more captivating on screen.

Ye Gods, Allen Ren is light years ahead of Wang He Run in acting ability. For one thing, he understands the concept of less is more.

Just watched the end of Episode 19, and while you could feel his agony at her words just by the quickly changing ever so slightly there and then gone emotions on his face , she was just going through the motions "acting" the way she thought she should be for that scene. Incredibly inauthentic. Such a shame she was cast in this role. She's just not up to it.

Drama still superb. About to watch her scenes on 1.5 speed.

EDIT: Would have loved to have seen Zhang Kai Ying in the lead role. She would have done something interesting with the role, IMO.

It's not entirely. It's actually mainly fantasy xianxia with some wuxia and xuan huan elements, so could be labelled as all three. I double checked, and iQIYI labels it "fantasy xianxia". -- https://www.iq.com/album/fate-chooses-you-2026-sqb5dpk0vt?lang=en_us -- They produced it, so I guess they know what it is :)

This. Is. Absolutely. Wonderful.

One of the best wuxia dramas I've seen in quite a while. Not a boring moment. Fast paced. Brilliantly acted, very well-written, some truly fascinating supporting characters, quite funny in parts, and Allen Ren is a phenomenal lead. Loving this so much.

EDIT: Still not a fan of the FL though. Actress or character. Wish a different actress had been cast with Ren. Would have been a more interesting pairing, as this one is just bland.

Actually, I'll amend what I said -- I thought Wang He Run did a superb job in Mysterious Lotus Casebook and was hoping her character in this one would be more bitch like that and less bland like this. :) Guess I'll see which way she goes in later episodes :)

That scene was way too long. Should have been much more concise, and it would have been more interesting. As it was, like you said, she came off arrogant and preachy.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the FL or Wang He Run (wish a different actress had been cast as she is exactly the same in every drama she stars in -- the first few episodes made it look as if she would be different in this one but, nope, she's just the same. For me then, with a different, more complex actress, the role may have been more intriguing and the FL's scenes not as draggy).

Loving the drama, and most of the characters have been very well cast, IMO. Performances overall are excellent too. Just getting to a point (I'm on Ep 18) where, if the FL's character doesn't become more interesting, and WHR continues to be bland AF in her performance, I'll probably start watching her scenes at a faster speed. Don't generally do that, but currently finding her beyond dull.

What ARE you talking about? Tencent has been promoting Dilraba's dramas incessantly. Maybe stop believing gossip from disgruntled "netizens" or idiotic Dilraba fans for once. She and Arthur Chen were excellent in this drama, and Tencent knows that. Hence the promotions still going on even though the drama ended 2 weeks ago.

Not one Chinese production company cares much about what MDL ratings look like.

The main things that are important to them are how well a drama performs commercially IN CHINA (they don't care that much about the rest of the world, although that is changing) and, in second place and secondary but still important, what the Douban ratings say.

They also care how well it does on WeTV internationally, hence why they are putting massive financial resources into the platform this year.

Meanwhile, Love Beyond the Grave was a massive commercial hit in China. On Douban, it's only earning a 6.7, which means "average to poor", but I highly doubt the production company (Tecent) cares as much as they normally would about that rating when the drama was such a big hit commercially.

MDL has a problem with a group of people who are "constantly offended" if a drama doesn't fit their narrow-minded views of how things should be.

In this case, the so-called "age gap" between the two leads "offends" them, which is a disgusting opinion as it's as if they are infantilizing the two main actors who are, according to them, apparently too stupid to choose their own dramas so need to be told their choice is "inappropriate".

To say I despise these people with a passion would be an understatement.

Anyone who thinks Dilraba and Arthur have no chemistry are either blind or saying so because the age gap "offends" them (yep, we do still have a stable of "always offended/woke" viewers on MDL, sadly). The chemistry between the two is incredible.