PeachBlossomGoddess

Longest Day had the best sets, character arcs etc but the storytelling was all over the place and the pacing was super stressful in the first half and then super slow and a bit draggy in the second half. It also lacked humor. Definitely a higher quality drama overall with high snob appeal but this one is much more down to earth and entertaining.

The problem is even the first gen wasn't even that special outside of Gu Yu- it was just all the usual youth school dramas tropes. And the second gen was even more uninspired and forgettable. It was all filler.

Lol... I thought it would never end.... The right place to stop was when the school was done. All the rest was anti-climatic. I was watching with my mom so I couldn't drop it or I would have. This kind of story should just be a movie.

Ep 32 conversation between He Youguang and Zhao Xinmin was hilarious bc the actor did play the emperor in Longest Day in Chang'an.

No not at all, they are not related.

The first ~10-12 episodes were great and then it got boring.

I recall when I was growing up, I referred to my teachers xiansheng and I always found it odd my nieces use laoshi nowadays.
Funnily I also thought of Zhang Guimei but I didn't much enjoy the drama, I snoozed through it so I didn't pay enough attention to remember if they used xiansheng in it.

I vaguely remember watching something else where it was used for a woman but I can’t remember exactly what it was.

Tang dynasty was very open and egalitarian towards women. So very educated women from renown poets, medical practitioners respected for their knowledge or professions are addressed as 先生 (xiān sheng) or in this context, teacher. In later dynasties it became an honorific used almost exclusively for men.

Indeed expectations were so high it was impossible to meet. It was obvious from the trailer that the production values are nowhere near Longest Day in Chang'an which cost a bomb. And while Longest Day was a huge "hit" in terms of viewing charts, to the extent people paid money to go watch it in theatres, Youku still lost quite a bit of money on it - back in 2019 when Longest Day aired Youku lost a stunning RMB~1-1.5bn a quarter!!! At the time no one cared but times have changed. So Tencent sold out its ad slots on this and is making money - just not as much as they hoped. That is also btw why they sped up the episode release. Platforms only drag out airing schedules when they still have empty ad slots to fill - all those melon posters have no clue about what they are talking about. Tencent didn't budget anywhere near as much as Youku spent on Longest Day so it is unrealistic to think they could just coast on Longest Day's reputation and make a huge amounts of money/achieve similar viewership.

Storytelling wise, I didn't read the book but I can tell the that Pingan's arc was written by a different writer. Its not bad but it does impact the pacing of the litchi arc. I am not super fussed by that though bc I found the high speed chase over the first half of Longest Day very stressful to watch after the first ~10 episodes. I also think what is happening to Shande is quite depressing - imagine to have to die if you can't get litchi to Changan by a certain date! So I don't mind the humor at all - not all of it lands but its quite well done overall. It is however quite stupid and unnecessary to kill off his wife bc he's just more or less left his kid home alone. Some of the criticism of the plot/writing is fair but its not by any stretch near the terrible logic and writing that made me drop Zanghai at ep 3.

In any case, I think it is beyond dumb to equate a drama's quality just with viewership. Chinese audiences love idol dramas so some of the highest viewed dramas are crappy idol dramas with incoherent storylines and atrocious acting. Give me a "flop" any day of the week over something brain cell destroying like that so called hit that is also currently airing.

Wouldn't call it a flop, its still topping of viewing charts.

Welp - can'tt even keep up with normal episodes/schedule so won't make a difference to me. But please use spoiler tags if you watch ahead!😘

Ah it’s been quite awhile then 😅, glad to see you are back! Have a good night and I hope you enjoy it.

Hello... did you change your handle?
I am enjoying this drama quite a bit.

Yeah its not the intense high speed chase that was Longest Day in Changan. I am enjoying the dialogue its very funny but if you are not, that part won't really change.

The people in Lingnan are much nicer than Changan.

Its better to be lucky than smart... except in a c-drama with critical viewers who roll their eyes at lucky not smart.

Yes his colleagues are sharks but it doesn't help that Li Shande is naive. I hope he gets smart and beats them at their own game. Surely he must have learned something...

Mediocre people are always threatened by capable ones.

She waded in controversy bc she got into privileged schools with low scores and then didn't fulfill her contract to return to work in Inner Mongolia. Followed by accusations she got all her roles bc her dad is some big cheese at CCTV. Its a bit unfortunate but I think it will die down. The truth is lots of good looking actors get in with low test scores, I doubt she is the first or the last. And her acting is alright, she didn't bomb out in any of her roles. Nor is she the only actress to get roles by their connections - if I start naming and shaming them this post will take pages. Geez ZRY's dad is a famous director; Arthur Chen's father is a famous director, etc etc etc. This is the way the business works. She just got super hot suddenly and there is plenty of envy out there. The fact she got practically no roles for years suggests to me her bailing on her contract has already hurt her career. She probably settled it via repayment/a donation which is probably why she got Litchi Rd and another movie recently. But it is quite unfortunate its being dug up now bc she is very hot at the moment everyone is talking about her. Tbh her look is so unique even if she leaves China she can get roles/modeling work so she will be fine.