I love how every time they spy on her when she's human, she's always doing things prettily. I always wonder if it's in reality, what if she had to secretly fart? Dig boogers? Go to the bathroom? The Gods spying on her would see it all lol.
Need spoiler.... Can anyone tell me whether it is happy ending or not?
First part: "Oh no, she has amnesia"
Last part: "Yay, she finally... has no more amnesia"
--But it ended there...so it's a bad ending I guess? Overall, the drama was really draggy and the plot is all over the places. Curiouscloudly and Avenuex also made reviews about this drama on YT if you're interested.
Michelle Yip's TVB Eternal Love is also about Meng Li Jun. I prefer the TVB version because of the comedical side to it.
This one isn't bad, but somehow the leads are not as interesting as the villain. I think (villain) Chen Long's acting is very good here, I got more invested into his story more.
I was debating if I will go watch The Longest Day in Chang'an, and I happened to see a user commented in there about The Story of Minglan. I'll share with you and quote what he wrote about the inaccuracies they portrayed about Song dynasty.
RSMasterfade "In term of attention paid to the historical setting, this show is head and shoulders above Minglan. In many respects Minglan's portrayal of Song was the exact opposite to the real history. Take one of the most glaring misrepresentation - slavery. Chattel slavery, legal and widely practiced in Tang, was completely abolished in Song. All house servants were free men and free women working under contract, so if anyone were to beat their servants to death, they would be put on trial for murder. Chattel slavery was reintroduced to China after the Mongol conquest. The first Ming emperor tried again at abolition but didn't succeed. So some key (and heartbreaking) moments in the show could have happened in any historical period but Song.
Also, the show had the Sheng father and son serving together in the capital, which was just impossible in history. Song had strict anti-nepotism laws, to have son and father both serving in the capital required special wavier from the emperor which was almost never granted - the Censorate would have a field day if an emperor tried, so it's reserved for the emperor's favorites and even then only under exceptional circumstances. Qi Heng and his second father-in-law were also both serving at court in the capital - impossible for the same reason.
The show also portrayed the Song upper class as obsessed with birth and noble titles, which was again opposite to what was true. Song marked the fall of the power of the Chinese aristocracy. All important government positions were available only to people who passed the exam and everyone wanted to marry their daughters to top rankers regardless of birth. Minglan's story would make a lot more sense in Tang, when the aristocracy was so powerful the most prestigious aristocratic families would refuse to let their sons marrying princesses because they considered the imperial family beneath them. The original novel behind Minglan had no historical period attached, and the script writers (or the investors, who knows) decided to make it Song. It's not just a poor choice, it's the poorest choice possible.
The costume design in Minglan were also overall inaccurate. The formal dresses for ladies with conferred titles were good. The minister's court dresses were fine but the emperor's court dress was atrocious. GTY's wedding attire was wrong - people wore formal dress to their wedding, commoners didn't have formal dresses so they were allowed to wear an official's semi-formal dress, GTY was a high ranking official so he should have worn his formal court robes with the corresponding hat. A groom going to his wedding without a hat was just unthinkable, far more unthinkable than going to a black-tie wedding now in evening dress and Crocs. The casual dresses in the show were generally bad.
Sorry for this wall of text. I have long felt that the Story of Minglan presented a very distorted picture of the Song society, but people believed it because it was presented with such earnestness. So I have to let this out.
(Minglan's director's next show is also set in Song, but the original novel it based was well-researched and the the trailer looked much better than Minglan in terms of historical details. I'm a fan of the original novel, and I'm very much looking forward to the show. )
On the other hand, the Longest Day in Chang'an is the really deal. It's not 100% correct (for example, people have pointed out that Penzai in the show used Song era pots/planters rather than Tang era ones), but it's better than anything that came before in term of period details. It's attracting attention not just in the popular press but also in the more rarefied circles of universities and museums, and not just in China. I just saw a tweet from the associate director of the Eisei Bunko Museum in Tokyo commenting on the show's excellent set design."
This show haven't stun me yet but it is ok. Tell me if my eyes are wrong, I think I see a Diliraba doppelganger. If nobody sees it then guess it's just me.
lmaoo Alila is right u skipped way too much if u didnt even get that ending. you should just play it on 1.5x speed…
XD I just rewatched it because my roommate wanted to see from the beginning. I don't know why at first I find the beginning so terribly boring. I think it's because I wasn't attach to the main girl yet. It's so much more watchable the second time around. I see things a little differently, Zhi Yan doesn't really feel like the main lead in the middle part anymore (although her role is still very important). I still think lots of things could've been done way faster. But this drama is still one of the better ones this year. Would totally by a 10/10 to me if it's only 20-30 episodes long.
Anita Mui + Sammi Cheng + Cecilia, All 3 super big stars together in one piece! Why not?
I was lucky to get to watch this with Eng Sub a long time ago, so sad I couldn't find it anywhere anymore. Found the soundtrack though, it's a beautiful piece. I love it so much when Wu Yen goes to war with it.
Sammi Cheng - Love how she's such a great warrior and loyal to her country. You'll fall in love with her, and feel her pain.
Anita Mui - Although her character is very stupid, she is very very hilarious. She's a great singer in real life. She's also the actress who played in Moon Warriors with Andy Lau and Kenny Bee, soundtrack in that movie is so touching, check it out if you haven't.
Cecilia Cheung - Her role is cute and interesting. She is really handsome as a man, and really beautiful as a woman. She's the trouble maker but she is also hilarious. Love this actress in The Lion Roar (must watch!).
Raymond Wong - I think he got the same name like the music producer but they are different people. This guy is handsome but very very funny. You'll laugh at his role and interaction with Anita Mui in this movie. He also took some other very funny roles in the Love Undercover movies with Merriam Yeung (resembles Sammi Cheng a lot don't mix them up). I really like this guy after watching TVB drama call Sweetness in the Salt.
Rewatched this since I saw it popped on YT, still confusing but I just can't resist seeing 3 big beauties altogether in one show. Miss days like these where all beautiful women work together Sharla, Brigritte, Gong Li. I only realize it's supposed to be DGSD.
I still love all her support roles in the past. The first time I'd ever noticed her was from Chinese Paladin she was sooo beautiful. I recognized her every time from then on. She was among the 7 Fairies with Huo Si Yan (used to find so adorable as 7th fairy). When she play evil in Liao Zhai with Li bingbing, still very pretty. Then as Mu Wan Qing too.
the first half of the drama was fun but I didn't feel like the lead couples romance was particularly strong enough…
That's how I felt too! Depends on person to person, some people really like the lead couples but I didn't feel them until 35-40 during the intense moments. They went back to being boring after 40 all the way, the demon guy made it fun but he's supposed to be kind of bad. All these chinese dramas really need to get condensed, they always dragg out everything way too long.
Errr that ending…they siblings? Taboo is my no no if they do that to me at the very end...real-lay?
This might be the most unpopular opinion.
From 1-5 I skimmed a whole lot, it was way too boring, Zhao Yao crying at the beginning was awesome though. I guess I had some problem understanding the plot at first because of what I skipped, so not recommened to skip intro like I did. But if you hang on to it, things get more interesting at ep5.
From 5-23 I skipped totally everything. I only watched all the Zhi Yan scenes. Actually, in the entire drama, I haven’t skipped anything with Zhi Yan at all. Not that I wanted to, I thought she would be the last person I wanted to watch after judging it from the pictures. There was no other choices besides her from 5-23, and she acted great so proved me wrong. I thought the drama would be like that forever, but no worries by 24 the main leads pick up more from there. But very disappointing as well, Zhi Yan became unimportant to the plot and they debunked her. It felt out of place because Zhi Yan was almost like the main lead for a long while. Why I fell for the weakling Zhi Yan? Well it was totally so unexpected, I honestly wanted to watched for Xu Kai in the first place. And also for Zhao Yao because she looked so cool. Zhi Yan and Zhao Yao makes one odd team and they are funny to watch. It’s funny to see how dumb Zhi Yan is. They keep cycling around and around between Zhi Yan and Zhao Yao switching back and forth back and forth and it gets too tiring that was why, the only thing that kept me going on at that time was to watch Zhi Yan. I just want to see how much more scared she can get. I only look forward to her meeting more with Xu Kai and Ah Wu and see her funny reactions. Sadly it didn’t even happen that often. Still so disappointed they abandon Zhi Yan just like that later on. They don’t have to pair her up with Ah Wu if they didn’t want to, but at least make her talk with Ah Wu and she teach him how to be a good person like herself or something, give her character more depth. Goddamit they really abandoned her for real, even a small thing like that didn’t happen. Just give her an excuse to go talk to Ah Wu seriously, like when Zhao Yao couldn’t convince him to save the uncle in a coma and Zhi Yan was outside…I was pleaing, girl you go to Ah Wu and convince him herself! T_T Tears, when that scene slowly blacked out and just exited to the next stuff... Am I the only one who shipped them? Man, WARNING, don’t even look forward to it at all it won’t happen. One hopeless, regretful ship. Zhi Yan is a very good actress, it must have been harder for her having to play dual so naturally! I usually do not like cute characters but Zhi Yan comes off very naturally. It’s doesn’t feel pretentious. Anybody else gets the irks all over if an actress try too hard to be sweet? She isn’t very pretty in my opinion. But she’s now a talented one on my list. It’s sad she gets more overlooked, and it’s hella annoying watching it on Viki (the only choice for uncut scenes) people mock and say such vulgar words at her.
I like Zhao Yao but there lots of time I skipped her parts, maybe she has more scenes and not all her scenes are well written each time? I had a little difficulty shipping the main couple at the beginning too so yeah, I only finally shipped them at 35 when she turned back original. The couple is loving together but it gets boring most of the time when they’re casual together. The fighting along with romance around 35-40 was intensive! Sadly the final fight at the end was not level up to the ones from the middle, quite disappointing there too. Regardless I still like Zhao Yao badass and funny scenes.
Besides Zhi Yan, the other person I love every single bit of his scenes, is of course Ah Wu and his cute team. I'm really guessing this is because the less scene the person have, the better their scripts are? He and his team are full of great ideas. They are sometimes funny rather than serious and harmful guys. It is disappointing Ah Wu doesn’t do anything much at all, he just hide in the cave but still remain the most interesting person regardless. When he finally came out towards the end, I find him adorable. I’m sure Zhao Yao&Xukai ship hates him to death, but it kept a mini story to go on. It was funny when they had to keep 3 leaders. Truthfully I fast forwarded the entire series, in hopes that Ah Wu will appear more. Don’t do the same as me because he doesn’t that often either.
Super sad they only focus so much on all the other useless/annoying/boring people. The lady servant that’s a traitor because she likes Xu Kai, I don’t care one bit about her. The annoying people that killed Zhi Yan’s father are annoying too, I didn’t pay attention to them so I forgot their sect name. The cripple and wood girl, their story need not exist will be appreciated although they’re nice people. They kept so many things going on, more than what they can eat.
The doctor is one damn funny dude too, I liked him so much. Why can’t they just rotate between that doctor, the 2 leads, Zhi Yan, and Ah Wu. That should be way more than busy enough. With that going on, just give very little scenes to the villains, that’s it. Overall I hate that I have to skim so much because a bunch of people are irrelevant to the story. Like seriously? I find the character development really poor because not enough focus are on them.
I peeked at first few episodes, nope not my cup of tea. Female lead's acting is a bit annoying sometimes she speaks like she is 5 years, I would prefer her speaking normally or maturely like a grown up.
It's always interesting when the female lead is a dancer or performer. The dance wasn't bad. But I'm disappointed it isn't amazing. I miss how they used to make these performances look so rich and so beautiful. Such as: Liu Tao - Zhou E Huang Cao Ying (Phoenix Swing) Lv Yi (The Emperor's Harem) Dong Jie (Butterfly Lovers) Liu Shi Shi (Liao Zhai) There's a whole lot more on my list. I hope chinese dramas would consider putting in more improvement with these choreography, both when people dance and fight. It's a lot of effort but will be worth it for sure.
Haha XD the poem that says the empress isn't human definitely bring up memories of the good old Dicky Cheung days. I understood the poem right away. Thanks to Liu Man Chu. It was from Kungfu Scholar. At 13:00 in this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxGF6k49NlM
Last part: "Yay, she finally... has no more amnesia"
--But it ended there...so it's a bad ending I guess? Overall, the drama was really draggy and the plot is all over the places. Curiouscloudly and Avenuex also made reviews about this drama on YT if you're interested.
Yes I always thought Ni Ni looks a lot like Shu Qi and Joey Yung
https://www.ondramanice.ch/elixir-of-love-episode-1/
Don't miss this cute movie, love the beautiful setting!
This one isn't bad, but somehow the leads are not as interesting as the villain. I think (villain) Chen Long's acting is very good here, I got more invested into his story more.
RSMasterfade
"In term of attention paid to the historical setting, this show is head and shoulders above Minglan. In many respects Minglan's portrayal of Song was the exact opposite to the real history. Take one of the most glaring misrepresentation - slavery. Chattel slavery, legal and widely practiced in Tang, was completely abolished in Song. All house servants were free men and free women working under contract, so if anyone were to beat their servants to death, they would be put on trial for murder. Chattel slavery was reintroduced to China after the Mongol conquest. The first Ming emperor tried again at abolition but didn't succeed. So some key (and heartbreaking) moments in the show could have happened in any historical period but Song.
Also, the show had the Sheng father and son serving together in the capital, which was just impossible in history. Song had strict anti-nepotism laws, to have son and father both serving in the capital required special wavier from the emperor which was almost never granted - the Censorate would have a field day if an emperor tried, so it's reserved for the emperor's favorites and even then only under exceptional circumstances. Qi Heng and his second father-in-law were also both serving at court in the capital - impossible for the same reason.
The show also portrayed the Song upper class as obsessed with birth and noble titles, which was again opposite to what was true. Song marked the fall of the power of the Chinese aristocracy. All important government positions were available only to people who passed the exam and everyone wanted to marry their daughters to top rankers regardless of birth. Minglan's story would make a lot more sense in Tang, when the aristocracy was so powerful the most prestigious aristocratic families would refuse to let their sons marrying princesses because they considered the imperial family beneath them. The original novel behind Minglan had no historical period attached, and the script writers (or the investors, who knows) decided to make it Song. It's not just a poor choice, it's the poorest choice possible.
The costume design in Minglan were also overall inaccurate. The formal dresses for ladies with conferred titles were good. The minister's court dresses were fine but the emperor's court dress was atrocious. GTY's wedding attire was wrong - people wore formal dress to their wedding, commoners didn't have formal dresses so they were allowed to wear an official's semi-formal dress, GTY was a high ranking official so he should have worn his formal court robes with the corresponding hat. A groom going to his wedding without a hat was just unthinkable, far more unthinkable than going to a black-tie wedding now in evening dress and Crocs. The casual dresses in the show were generally bad.
Sorry for this wall of text. I have long felt that the Story of Minglan presented a very distorted picture of the Song society, but people believed it because it was presented with such earnestness. So I have to let this out.
(Minglan's director's next show is also set in Song, but the original novel it based was well-researched and the the trailer looked much better than Minglan in terms of historical details. I'm a fan of the original novel, and I'm very much looking forward to the show. )
On the other hand, the Longest Day in Chang'an is the really deal. It's not 100% correct (for example, people have pointed out that Penzai in the show used Song era pots/planters rather than Tang era ones), but it's better than anything that came before in term of period details. It's attracting attention not just in the popular press but also in the more rarefied circles of universities and museums, and not just in China. I just saw a tweet from the associate director of the Eisei Bunko Museum in Tokyo commenting on the show's excellent set design."
I was lucky to get to watch this with Eng Sub a long time ago, so sad I couldn't find it anywhere anymore. Found the soundtrack though, it's a beautiful piece. I love it so much when Wu Yen goes to war with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE5tUpp7syE
Sammi Cheng - Love how she's such a great warrior and loyal to her country. You'll fall in love with her, and feel her pain.
Anita Mui - Although her character is very stupid, she is very very hilarious.
She's a great singer in real life. She's also the actress who played in Moon Warriors with Andy Lau and Kenny Bee, soundtrack in that movie is so touching, check it out if you haven't.
Cecilia Cheung - Her role is cute and interesting. She is really handsome as a man, and really beautiful as a woman. She's the trouble maker but she is also hilarious.
Love this actress in The Lion Roar (must watch!).
Raymond Wong - I think he got the same name like the music producer but they are different people. This guy is handsome but very very funny. You'll laugh at his role and interaction with Anita Mui in this movie. He also took some other very funny roles in the Love Undercover movies with Merriam Yeung (resembles Sammi Cheng a lot don't mix them up). I really like this guy after watching TVB drama call Sweetness in the Salt.
https://photobucket.com/gallery/user/diro-diro/media/cGF0aDoveW1hbmR6bHlfenBzbnpjeHFldmYuanBn/?ref=
This might be the most unpopular opinion.
From 1-5 I skimmed a whole lot, it was way too boring, Zhao Yao crying at the beginning was awesome though. I guess I had some problem understanding the plot at first because of what I skipped, so not recommened to skip intro like I did. But if you hang on to it, things get more interesting at ep5.
From 5-23 I skipped totally everything. I only watched all the Zhi Yan scenes. Actually, in the entire drama, I haven’t skipped anything with Zhi Yan at all. Not that I wanted to, I thought she would be the last person I wanted to watch after judging it from the pictures. There was no other choices besides her from 5-23, and she acted great so proved me wrong. I thought the drama would be like that forever, but no worries by 24 the main leads pick up more from there. But very disappointing as well, Zhi Yan became unimportant to the plot and they debunked her. It felt out of place because Zhi Yan was almost like the main lead for a long while. Why I fell for the weakling Zhi Yan? Well it was totally so unexpected, I honestly wanted to watched for Xu Kai in the first place. And also for Zhao Yao because she looked so cool. Zhi Yan and Zhao Yao makes one odd team and they are funny to watch. It’s funny to see how dumb Zhi Yan is. They keep cycling around and around between Zhi Yan and Zhao Yao switching back and forth back and forth and it gets too tiring that was why, the only thing that kept me going on at that time was to watch Zhi Yan. I just want to see how much more scared she can get. I only look forward to her meeting more with Xu Kai and Ah Wu and see her funny reactions. Sadly it didn’t even happen that often.
Still so disappointed they abandon Zhi Yan just like that later on. They don’t have to pair her up with Ah Wu if they didn’t want to, but at least make her talk with Ah Wu and she teach him how to be a good person like herself or something, give her character more depth. Goddamit they really abandoned her for real, even a small thing like that didn’t happen. Just give her an excuse to go talk to Ah Wu seriously, like when Zhao Yao couldn’t convince him to save the uncle in a coma and Zhi Yan was outside…I was pleaing, girl you go to Ah Wu and convince him herself! T_T Tears, when that scene slowly blacked out and just exited to the next stuff... Am I the only one who shipped them? Man, WARNING, don’t even look forward to it at all it won’t happen. One hopeless, regretful ship.
Zhi Yan is a very good actress, it must have been harder for her having to play dual so naturally! I usually do not like cute characters but Zhi Yan comes off very naturally. It’s doesn’t feel pretentious. Anybody else gets the irks all over if an actress try too hard to be sweet? She isn’t very pretty in my opinion. But she’s now a talented one on my list. It’s sad she gets more overlooked, and it’s hella annoying watching it on Viki (the only choice for uncut scenes) people mock and say such vulgar words at her.
I like Zhao Yao but there lots of time I skipped her parts, maybe she has more scenes and not all her scenes are well written each time? I had a little difficulty shipping the main couple at the beginning too so yeah, I only finally shipped them at 35 when she turned back original. The couple is loving together but it gets boring most of the time when they’re casual together. The fighting along with romance around 35-40 was intensive! Sadly the final fight at the end was not level up to the ones from the middle, quite disappointing there too. Regardless I still like Zhao Yao badass and funny scenes.
Besides Zhi Yan, the other person I love every single bit of his scenes, is of course Ah Wu and his cute team. I'm really guessing this is because the less scene the person have, the better their scripts are? He and his team are full of great ideas. They are sometimes funny rather than serious and harmful guys. It is disappointing Ah Wu doesn’t do anything much at all, he just hide in the cave but still remain the most interesting person regardless. When he finally came out towards the end, I find him adorable. I’m sure Zhao Yao&Xukai ship hates him to death, but it kept a mini story to go on. It was funny when they had to keep 3 leaders. Truthfully I fast forwarded the entire series, in hopes that Ah Wu will appear more. Don’t do the same as me because he doesn’t that often either.
Super sad they only focus so much on all the other useless/annoying/boring people. The lady servant that’s a traitor because she likes Xu Kai, I don’t care one bit about her. The annoying people that killed Zhi Yan’s father are annoying too, I didn’t pay attention to them so I forgot their sect name. The cripple and wood girl, their story need not exist will be appreciated although they’re nice people. They kept so many things going on, more than what they can eat.
The doctor is one damn funny dude too, I liked him so much. Why can’t they just rotate between that doctor, the 2 leads, Zhi Yan, and Ah Wu. That should be way more than busy enough. With that going on, just give very little scenes to the villains, that’s it. Overall I hate that I have to skim so much because a bunch of people are irrelevant to the story. Like seriously? I find the character development really poor because not enough focus are on them.
However, I think Zhao Liying looks like Yang Mi the most if you look at the picture backward:
https://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e104/diro-diro/ymandzly_zpsnzcxqevf.jpg
It's always interesting when the female lead is a dancer or performer. The dance wasn't bad. But I'm disappointed it isn't amazing. I miss how they used to make these performances look so rich and so beautiful.
Such as:
Liu Tao - Zhou E Huang
Cao Ying (Phoenix Swing)
Lv Yi (The Emperor's Harem)
Dong Jie (Butterfly Lovers)
Liu Shi Shi (Liao Zhai)
There's a whole lot more on my list. I hope chinese dramas would consider putting in more improvement with these choreography, both when people dance and fight. It's a lot of effort but will be worth it for sure.
Haha XD the poem that says the empress isn't human definitely bring up memories of the good old Dicky Cheung days. I understood the poem right away. Thanks to Liu Man Chu. It was from Kungfu Scholar. At 13:00 in this YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxGF6k49NlM