Steph

Yes, that's what I meant by "not a direct translation." I guess it was a little unclear. (^__^)

Personally, I don't want a season two because there would have to be so much more angst & drama to fill out the episodes, and I think the pair have had enough of that. However, a special episode or movie showing them meeting again & getting together & starting a life would be nice.

A decent remake that is worth watching, and not a direct 'translation' of the Chinese version. However, it's best watched by those who've seen the original & can fill in some of the missing pieces of plot & character motivation. The Evil 2nd Lead Female is refreshing in having actual & reasonable motivations for her behaviour, not just romantic obsession.

1) Started watching, thought it was terrible, but read comments assuring me that the frame story wasn't the point and the sub-plots were better, so I held on.
2) Got to the Song Ning/Shen An arc & fell in love with the drama.
3) Finished Song Ning's arc.
4) Rage-quit.

This drama is essentially split into two halves (I won't spoil, but it's easy to figure out once you're past that point) and the problem with the second half is that it's ... okay. Good, even. But the first half is mind-blowing and amazing, so in comparison, the second half is a bit of a let down. Still worth watching, mind you--there's lots of good parts--and the drama as a whole is definitely a "must watch." Just not really a "must re-watch."

Really thin on plot, and what's there is pretty ridiculous, but this earns points for being really gay-positive (pretty much actually a gay drama in disguise, actually...) and for avoiding the cliche drama of most gender-bending romances. Also, there's a lot of really hot kissing.

Really really good. The plot-device used to explain why Lin Shu's appearance changed is fairly ridiculous, but I guess necessary. It's so satisfying to watch bad guys falling into his traps one by one. :)