PeachBlossomGoddess

Just started but am not sure why the FL is getting so much hate here when the ML is the one who is arrogant, condescending and gaslights her.

He shows up from Ep 9.

This is not a bad year but I am quite busy I haven't watched that many dramas. My ranking list:
https://kisskh.at/list/3kP8rN84

that one didn't fit your palate well..
You mean Litchi Road? No, I really liked it. I rated it 8.5, better than The Double.

Episode count cuts are happening across dramas and platforms. This is because ad slots are priced on a unit basis. The platforms don't want to cut unit price (i.e price/slot/episode) anymore bc every time they do that, its incredibly difficult to push the unit price back up. But the Chinese economy is so weak that advertising budgets are down a lot so the only way to cut absolute price without cutting unit price is to cut episode count. IA was indeed trying to get enough ads to air for a long time but they couldn't sell enough slots to break so it kept getting pushed back. But the content cut may not have been that severe as there were quite a few close to 1 hour episodes. To the platforms its all about preserving unit economics - right now they are cutting absolute price without looking like that is what they are doing. When the economy rebounds, they can increase price without raising unit price by just going back to 40 episodes.

No worries, good to see you again on the threads.

I am not familiar with the actor and his past works. I was just reacting to the trailer. But I will watch the movie when it becomes available to me. Sometimes trailers can be misleading. I enjoyed the drama version.

There are lots of seriously disturbed people out there. Sadly one of them is now running a superpower.😅😱🤣

The drama platforms and media companies are the biggest and more disciplined investors in dramas but high net worth individuals and actors themselves often do it as well. A lot of times it’s for bragging rights which is why sometimes stupid actors (mistresses, girlfriends and daughters) get cast in bigger roles than they deserve and some really bad dramas get made. Zhang Ziyi for example was the biggest investor in Rebel Princess which is allegedly the highest budget drama ever. But that is mostly BS bc her pay was a huge number and it was her paying herself a ton of money - in one pocket out the other. That is also why a lot of dumb shit happened with the script and even the casting of the well into her 40s self as a 16 year old. This was before all the actor pay controls she won’t be able to do that today and boast about it being the most expensive drama ever. In general the investment terms and amounts can be quite opaque but Youku, iqiyi, mango and tencent are all listed companies so you can find quite a bit of information from their regulatory filings and investor updates. I talk to a lot of the IR teams regularly and usually pick up quite a bit of information that way.

Hahahahaha!!! That sounds bat shit crazy!!!

Good to know. I find spoilers and trailers anti-climatic so I avoid them like the plague.

Idk - I don't follow the gossip that much although I have friends in the business that will sometimes tell me all kinds of stuff. My impression is just that there are lots of fragile egos in the business its not specific to Youku and when someone feels slighted its very easy to get a lot of drama and fan wars. I don't have time for it so I just half listen and try to forget it.

Oh ok - thank goodness I didn't watch more than a few seconds of it.😅 I don't watch trailers.

WeTV, Youku and iQiyi are all investing huge amounts of money into AI. They normally go back and get human translators to clean-up the AI generated subs later on as they are trying to improve the accuracy of their bots over time. It just takes longer bc there is always a shortage of good translators. They are also using AI to write scripts and dub dramas into English and other languages. One of them will soon be launching human like bot dramas. I have seen some of their bot stars- they are scarily humanlike. I watched a 10 minute clip and was completely fooled.

For current budgets, CNY 300mm is very high but I would not be surprised if it is true. That's why it took a long time to air - it was very hard to raise the needed advertisement and investment to break even. Youku now has a hard rule that dramas have to at least break even to air.

I don't know if its a trailer or deleted scenes but there is a Surprise episode.

Yeah she been MIA in promoting the drama. Whatever her reasons, it seems misguided to me. She is not that well-established as an actor and this is a high budget, high popularity drama. This is a huge opportunity for her - she needs it a lot more than the drama needs her. A more commercial actor would maximize every opportunity to be visibly and vocally associated with it while it is airing.

Got to keep them employed! 😂😂😂

Yes, that's why Luo Yunxi also does his own stunts and gets spun around on wires all the time - he is super light. I personally prefer actors in martial arts roles to be heftier and do more hand to hand combat instead of spinning around on wires but for xianxias wires make sense.

I heard about his 7kg weight loss from a reliable source. He was doing a lot of stunts involving wires. It’s better and safer to be lighter. He may have lost more as shooting progressed as it is grueling work - most actors lose a few kgs during shooting bc you shouldn’t eat or drinkmuch to avoid looking bloated. He looks healthy I don’t think he starved himself - just shed a few kgs that are easy to gain back.