MyLangyaList

The only way to stomach Nianci and YK relationship is for there to be some reason for her to be repeatedly interested in a guy that killed her father, tries to kill her friends, and keeps betraying her trust. In the original story, YK does many bad things, but you can kind of see a prideful, flawed individual that was faced with difficult circumstances and ultimately chose the wrong path.

You still see shades of that in 2017 where he loves the privilege, he has few scruples, but at least loves his Mom and has genuine moments of reflection and wanting to become good.

He was overtly sadistic in the first EP here, which means Nianci should have no reason to be attracted in the first place.

If you were frustrated enough by previous versions, this one is so much worse.

You might as well just watch the 2017 version at this point. It actually looks better visually despite being 7 years older. And while it has flaws and frustrating plot elements, the first half is compelling enough that it might carry you over issues in the second half.

This version is just irredeemable as they've detonated the entire foundation of the story in just the first episodes. Wouldn't surprise me if this go down as one of the worst adaptations.

I'm still naively hoping that the other side stories will be at least passable.

Yeah his first appearance and interaction with Mu Nianci was complete WTF, even more so than the Guo Jing Huang Rong meeting. The strength of LOCH are the tragedy and heroism of its characters and the grandeur of its scale and themes. These positives carry the show over some visible plot issues.

This version brilliantly destroys all that's good about the show so that not only do the plot holes become more glaring, nothing else makes much sense. And it's not like they were being creative and rewrote the plot. They give you the same plot points and outcomes, just without the characterization to justify the plot logic or why the audience should care.

This was just based on EP1, but things seem to have gotten worse from there. It's so disgraceful to an iconic tale that I can't even bring myself to hate-watch it.

They are both Yang Kang's bitch.

Also the Yang Tiexien (Yang Kang's real dad) is the Pickpocket Freak from 2017

Just post it to your MDL profile, they will find you. It's super cringe.

Daily request for password change. It's really cringe.

What the story has revealed in S1 is that despite the ostensible hostilities between the two countries, the 2nd Prince and Grand Princess was involved in smuggling/trade operation of goods to Bei Qi. Not certain whether the trade was prohibited, hence smuggling, or trade allowed but they were keeping profits for themselves.

Essentially 2nd Prince and Grand Princess were doing shady dealings to amass illicit wealth and power.

Yeah JoL is really popular, yet also strangely underrated on Douban. Even by Douban's tougher standards, both shows should be at least +1.0 higher. It completely outclasses similar shows rated in the 7 and 8 range.

It's mostly Mandarin. But when dialects are spoken by FBB and most others, it's Sanchuan (Sichuan in real life) dialect. The brothers that can control knives and objects is one of the northern dialects (maybe Dongbei, not sure).

It's meant as a refresher for those who have already watched JOL years ago. It's not intended for 1st time watcher as you lose so much of what makes the characters and plot outstanding.

Go for the full version. It's very tight and action-packed, with no fillers unlike most CDramas.

Yes! Unlike most shows with high rating on MDL, this actually deserves it. Of course, individual tastes may vary.

The two shows have different tenor. JOL is intended to be a joyride with intelligent characters, intrigue, and schemes. The heavy dose of comedy, action, and light-hearted OST is a constant reminder to not take it too seriously. Whereas NIF's core revolves around meticulous revenge/political plotting. So the intrigues are much tighter, realistic, and nuanced. But NIF is much more mentally taxing and require understanding of the cultural subtleties to be appreciated in full. Int viewer often find the early episodes especially overwhelming. JOL slightly better for international audiences, whereas Chinese audience will prefer NIF.

He has memories of all the greatest poems in Chinese history. So it was a contest he couldn't lose.

It's also not that hard to change it. Anyways, cool social experiment to see what people will do for a streaming subscription.

I've been trying to determine if I can just watch this up to a certain episode. But it seems so disjointed that I should just abandon it. The first 4 eps actually looks promising in terms of acting and production quality.

It's likely due to the Chinese New Year interruption, and them needing to coordinate somewhat with the TV airing schedule as it's on national TV.

lol, this is actually the 'me being nice list' rather than a 'mock list'. The purpose is to track dramas and genres that I don't enjoy but is popular with MDL demo. So that it can still be helpful to others even if I won't watch them myself. Also I'm curious how well I can identify idol/romance viewer's taste despite not being the demo. So for the 2023 'other peoples' list, I actually tried to best rank how I think the MDL demo will like it.

If I were to put out a mock list, I would use much spicier😂language. I don't fear the response, it's just not worth the effort.

It's the bomb

There's speculation it will drop in May 2024.