Michelle Topham

Yep. Getting bored with it now (thankfully only 2 eps left) as it's just going round and round in circles.

Still loving the performances, costumes, sets and cinematography, but the plot is now annoying :)

Yep. That's exactly it.. He would be an out-of-control destroyer if it wasn't for her.

It's especially bad when the original novel writer creates one ending that readers love, and then the C-drama has a completely different ending.

Screenwriters/production companies have destroyed so many otherwise excellent dramas by doing that.

Hell 'The Demon Hunter's Romance' even had a different ending than the novel that had been decided by AI. Beyond stupid

It's right up there with the love triangle trope, and the kiss under water trope. And one they drag out every 20 C-dramas or so. Highly annoying and watch-on-double-speed worthy if it's not done at least uniquely and interestingly in this drama :)

It shows the laziness of a huge number of Chinese web novel writers, though, as they just rehash the same plots over and over again. In a country of over a billion people, there must be a huge number of decent writers. It's a pity more of them don't write web novels or work in C-dramas.

That's actually not true. Most actors voice their own roles, even if rare dubbing is necessary.

Sure, if a drama/movie is dubbed into a foreign language, a foreign dubbing actor will voice it, but the original work is generally voiced by the original actor.

And no, most movies/dramas use on-set dialogue (I've been on many film/TV show sets and in film studios in the U.S and Europe as I used to work for someone who was involved in the film industry, so I know that for a fact).

The only time most movies/dramas use non-on-set dialogue is if the background noises makes the audio not clearly heard. It's then re-recorded in the studio -- it's called ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) but even then it's recorded by the original actor not a voice actor.

You can tell most dramas/films aren't dubbed, as the lip movement matches the voice. It's only in countries like China where we are subjected to dubbing that often doesn't remotely fit the movement of the lips. :)

Ignore rude commenters :) You speak at least two languages. Many English speakers only speak one, so you are already more intelligent than them :)

Don't worry about your English, I taught English in Thailand for 14 years, so I'm used to figuring out what someone who doesn't speak English as a first language actually means :)

And btw, your English is much better than my Japanese :)

EDIT: And even though I don't think it's a masterpiece :), I am still enjoying it very much.

Hey, I saw your original reply to me, which you then deleted. This is my reply to your original comment :).....

Oh I'm not offended by your comment at all :) Hopefully you're not offended by mine :)

If you like it and think it's a masterpiece for you, good for you. I'm not out to spoil your enjoyment at all -- and it is a very well done drama in many ways. I look forward to the new episodes dropping every day, as we're pretty much guaranteed to get some good watching :)

Arthur Chen and Wang Ying Lu are also doing an exceptionally good job Even if WYL isn't providing the vocal acting (she's being dubbed), her physical performance is superb.

Overall, it's a very well done drama so far.

It's one of the cutest and most well-done CGI characters I've seen in a while, and very funny in the comedic scenes. They have also done a good job smoothly transforming the FL into the otter and vice versa.

I have a feeling, unless it's done exceptionally well, the tired amnesia arc that we've all seen a thousand times, will destroy what has been excellent about this drama so far.

There are so many ways the author could have chosen to go and instead we get the lazy amnesia arc. Hate arcs like this and tend to fast forward thru most dramas that have them. Hopefully it's handled better with this one!

The FL is not the brightest bulb in the box that's for sure. I'm just hoping her character develops as the drama continues, as that's the one weak link in this so far.

Don't get me wrong, I really like her, and she's very funny, but at some point she will have to stop being a lazy office worker who just wants the easy way out of everything. Have a feeling she will be forced to grow eventually.

The otter is beautifully done as well.

???? CGI is excellent in this. One of the better dramas for that this year.

Plot-wise, it's a very averagely written xianxia drama similar to hundreds of others already released. Nothing special at all.

It's also very well-acted with a lead couple with good chemistry, with good directing, beautiful cinematography and decent CGI, all of which has elevated it above the average. The comedy works well too.

In other words, it's a fun ride and I'm enjoying it immensely, but it's nowhere near a "masterpiece". A word, I hate by the way, as it's so overused and rarely deserved.

It's one of the reasons why Chinese actors rarely win any international awards. Many of them are not really acting in the strict sense of the word, as much of the real talent, IMO, is in the voice.

But even good voice acting, without equally excellent physical acting, is also a more shallow form of acting compared to actors from most other countries who have to be superb physically and vocally.

At least Arthur Chen is providing both the physical acting and vocals in his part. And he's doing an excellent job.

I'm watching WDBTD and, IMO, it's much better than LOTFG. Captivates you from the first episode, the two leads are perfectly cast in their roles, their chemistry is superb, and the plot is decently written. Not perfect, but decently written.

Couldn't say the same for the first two episodes of LOTFG before I gave up on it. Like I said, will likely go back to it at some point when I have nothing else to watch but, for a drama I was highly anticipating, it was an enormous disappointment.

I couldn't get passed Episode 2 of LOTFG. Will go back to it at some point, but the trailers made it look much better than it turned out to be and, for me, Zhou Ye (who I usually really like) was miscast in the part.

Shadow Love looks much better. Fingers crossed :)

Yep, the cost of C-dramas are crazy high, so they are careful about the dramas they choose to make and the actors they hire.

As far as views, each platform (ie: YOUKU, Tencent, iQIYI etc) calculates their heat index differently and keeps their heat index calculations secret as, if they give specific details about how they calculate them, then fans use that information to inflate the heat index for their favorite actors.

In other words, anything you read about how heat indexes are calculated is only speculation on the part of the person writing about it.

However, views are likely included on all platforms, but so are ratings, the number of bullet comments as a drama's episodes play etc, etc, etc.

And no, international views are not included as yet -- AS FAR AS WE KNOW -- but that could also not be true :) -- so... make sure you watch the dramas of your favorite actors, as even if they're not having an effect on heat index now, IMO, they will in the future as international audiences become very important for the Chinese economy.

EDIT: And btw, a drama that hits 10000 on YOUKU is supposedly "a success", while it's around 25000 on Tencent. Can't remember off the top of my head what it is on iQIYI. Anyone? :)

Yep. That's also true :)

Well -- it does if we want the same kinds of dramas we like or our favorite actors in dramas, and their heat index is poor, then we won't get them. But yep, overall, it doesn't matter to international viewers, just like the international market doesn't really matter to Chinese production companies right now.

That WILL change though if C-dramas start to get as popular as K-dramas, and companies like Netflix start to buy them. Fingers crossed :) Then Chinese production companies will start to produce things that are popular on the international market as they'll make boatloads of money from them. Just like the Koreans are doing now :)

It's actually very important because it's one of the things used by production companies to assess if a certain actor is worth hiring, if a writer is worth buying another script from, if a director is worth hiring, and if a certain genre of story is worth producing again in a new drama.

If dramas aren't hitting the heat index and actors aren't being talked about on social media/blogs/news articles etc, they're not worth spending money on in the future.