Michelle Topham

BTW, amazing to me that under 1,000 MDL users are currently watching this. It's absolutely one of the best Cdramas and one of the few that gets successive seasons.

Wouldn't worry about it if they do. Rumor has it there's already a Season 4 in the works. So... yay! :)

Would be great if he did. He's a fabulous actor and very good at stealing the scene :) His singing voice tho is on another level. Just gorgeous.

Yep, you're correct, there's the episode count too. I have some Cdramas that have been sitting there for almost two years that I would love to finish but I just can't find the time to get thru the last 20-plus episodes :)

It's why I've gotten into the short dramas recently -- 24 episodes of just 18 minutes or less each. Easy to get your Cdrama fix without signing up for your entire WEEK being sucked up with Chinese drama watching :)

Oh but absolutely thrilled to hear Yu Yi is again providing the ending theme song -- he has a stunning voice, and his songs from the first two seasons have been on my Spotify and YouTube Music playlists on repeat for months.

Already got his Season 3 ED on my Spotify playlist :)

https://open.spotify.com/album/4wIJO1CslnrIrrPzsSL3Tq?si=mw8oCkE9SmeSs6G_KMLGpw

Interestingly, he also paid Qin Xiao Bai, temple painter in the first six episodes of Season 2. So he's a talented actor too.

He's the only character in the entire series I don't like. Hopefully he'll have matured in Season 3, as I fast forwarded every scene he was in before :)

Yes, or you won't understand about 50% of the plot. Highly recommend though. They are two of the best Cdramas out there, and absolutely addictive once you start. I binge-watched both of them a couple of months ago in about 4 days :)

A huge number of people won't watch Cdramas as they hate the sound of the Chinese language (don't understand that as, after a few minutes of listening, it sounds just as interesting as any other foreign language, IMO).

Some may watch a romance drama, even if they don't like the language, as they're obsessed with romance series. But they won't watch if it doesn't feature any romance, and this one doesn't.

I do think some Cdramas would perform better internationally if they had English dubs, although that's the last thing I would want to watch as I prefer my series in the original language :)

It's always weird to me so many people don't like to hear Chinese though, but they'll happily listen to Korean or Japanese which, to my ear, is no more 'pretty' than Chinese.

MDL ratings have ZERO impact on what Korean production companies produce or which actors they hire either. It's just morons wasting their time spewing hate and thinking they're "righteous". Must be sad to be living such a waste of a life.

You should see some of the Chinese dramas. Some people are 35 episodes in and still leaving whining comment after whining comment slamming them. You'd think they spend their limited time on the planet in a more productive fashion, than watching around 35 hours of something they hate :) And then even more time bitching about it.

And yet you've watched the whole thing while complaining every 10 minutes for over 2 weeks. Really get a life. It's sad how obsessed you are with this drama.

Only negative thing about this entire drama is Zhao Huan Ran's over acting as the evil First Prince. Really difficult to watch, so I end up playing all his scenes x2 :)

You're welcome.

And yep, I used to pay for all 3, but now just stick to YOUKU and WeTV (annual subscriptions of both are excellent deals, IMO).

Don't have complaints about either of them. Apps work pretty well (well, WeTV could do a better job of updating your history when you also watch on a web browser but... :), they get many decent dramas/donghua/variety shows, and I always have something to watch without having to kowtow to iQIYI's greed.

They're not licensed for a huge percentage of international viewers. That's why they fly under the radar. This isn't available in Europe, for instance (currently watching it on a bootleg site. Happy to do so as iQIYI isn't offering it here). It's the 9th or 10th drama in the last two or three months that hasn't been available in Europe. Cancelled my subscription because of it.

Cancelled my subscription 2 months ago. It's worthless for many people outside Asia, but especially for Europeans -- this is about the 8th or 9th drama I wanted to watch that isn't available on iQIYI. WeTV and YOUKU are worth every penny. iQIYI is the most expensive, yet pretty much garbage for most Europeans.

I have a feeling they do it on purpose, as you can watch most of these shows via iQIYI's YouTube channel, but you then have to pay an extra membership fee if you want to watch new episodes at the same time as they drop for everyone else. Otherwise, their free YouTube drops them many days later.

I refuse to pay TWICE for the same company, so now take great pleasure in boycotting them completely. Pure greed, IMO.

Well, there's that too :) And yep, there are a lot of incredibly toxic "fans" in Korea sadly.

There's a reason why more Korean actors have committed suicide than actors from just about any other country.

You win a prize for the stupidest comment today. "Ageism" -- another made up term by woke loonies to try to shut other people up because they don't agree with their opinion (fuck that, btw) -- has nothing to do with saying someone looks older than they are.

He just does. It's a fact. Sorry.

But hey keep pushing your made up terms to try to shut down other people's opinions. Hasn't worked on me my whole life. Won't work now :)

Like I said, Koreans, man. They don't pull any punches :)

All about LJJ's age, how its "cringe-worthy", "offensive" etc that he's the male lead, and that he looks like someone's creepy older uncle.

They're also slamming that he looks like he's wearing a wig, and he doesn't have one ounce of sex appeal.

He really doesn't, IMO. Although I never really thought he did when he was younger either.

Plus, that scene where he was supposedly much younger was creepy AF as he tried to look "shy", but just came off as "old pervert leching on a young girl". Not my words. Theirs :)

(That scene is all over X and other forums with suitable derogatory commentary).

There's also talk about him insisting Im Ji Yeon had asked him to take the part, while she says she didn't. And that he's CEO of her agency, which comes off as a possible conflict of interest.

Due to his high-profile and wealth, he has a lot of power in Korean entertainment and, to some, it appears he's used it to shoe-horn himself into a role that's a horrible fit.

Personally, I think the problem is not so much the "age gap", which I generally don't mind as I know several couples with 10 to 15 year age gaps who are very happily married, and there have been brilliant dramas with age gap actors, but that he looks much older than her, she is absolutely gorgeous, and that there's no chemistry between them at all.

If he wanted a romantic lead role, he should have had someone write a script about a romance between an older couple. His acting skills could have brought something phenomenally touching to a role like that. Instead, he went through a mid-life crisis, and decided he could perform a role he does not suit.

All in all though, a sizeable percentage of Korean netizens seem to hate everything about this pairing and, like international viewers, are saying, think if the cast stayed as it is, she should have been paired with Kim Ji Hoon, who is 9 years older but doesn't come off as desperately trying to look young.

Overall, I think Koreans are pretty brutal about their actors, so they're quite a bit more mean than I would be.

I actually feel sorry for him, as he's a phenomenal actor who is going to be dragged from here to Sunday simply because he's in a role that should NEVER have been his.

He's badly miscast, and the drama will also likely get dragged down because of it. (Interested to see what tonight's rating will be).

Meanwhile, there are many roles he would be an absolute star in. This isn't one of them.

Especially as there are plenty of mid-40 year olds to 50 year olds who would have been a better choice.

Go to hell. So tired of your slander and lies. Get a life. You're pathetic.