PeachBlossomGoddess

I am a bit lazy to look them up but many of the poems quoted are quite famous and are translated and interpreted by renowned translators.

Yes me too. I also have to stop and look up archaic words, idioms and poems but I think its quite fun and it feels so much more authentic. Too many modern phrases just ruin my feeling of immersion.

Indeed 喏 (nuò/rě) is a distinct term for acknowledging orders by officials and servants during Tang dynasty. By Song dynasty this evolved into 唱喏 (chàng rě). By later Song/Ming 喏 became archaic and not in use anymore and responses like 是 (shì) - "yes", 知道了 (zhīdào le) - "understood" and 遵命 (zūnmìng) - "I obey" became more common.

I believe 嗻 (zhè) is a Manchu term used during Qing but lower ranking servants should use 喳 (zhā).

Yes this is written in classical language where deeper meaning is conveyed via word puns, idioms and poems by Li Bai and other living poets from that time. Most dramas nowadays are written in vernacular language which is bad enough but I draw the line at frequent use of modern phrases. Dropped so many allegedly high budget dramas bc they didn’t invest in well educated scriptwriters.

Yups - its even on her Wikipedia.

Douban 6.8 with 34k votes. Not bad at all considering the budget.
Note: Douban never released a rating for S1 so this can be considered the rating for both seasons, which makes sense.

So unfair. No one shamed and banned Tony Leung for the sex scenes. He was very much a part of them too.

In the US mini-series actors make a lot more money than in China, especially now with Netflix, Amazon and Disney all duking it out for audiences. They can do as well/better than movie actors.

No Liu Haoran has been minting one huge box office hit after another. The only dramas he's made since are the drama versions of Detective Chinatown.

Indeed ZRY didn’t choose a good debut movie but he probably didn’t have much choice. He is a pretty solid actor but what always elevates his dramas is his inclusiveness - he works with terrific casts all around and unlike ZYL he tries hard to connect with all of his co-stars so that the entire production’s performances are elevated.

Poor Tang Wei her role in Lust Caution cost her her career.

ZRY - Zhang Ruoyun of JOL fame.
Lost in the Stars was a box office hit and its super entertaining despite the plot holes. I just didn't rate it high bc I already guessed who-did-it very early on and bc there was no chemistry between ZYL and Ni Ni (yeah only actor I know with zilch chemistry with Ni Ni). The problem is ZYL is a fabulous actor BUT he is always all about himself and his being in character and in the moment. He is a very selfish actor who never tries to connect with co-stars to bring them into the moment with him. So over time, I have grown very disenchanted with him.

I am afraid Zhu Yilong is one of those actors we have more or less lost to the big screen. He has had one big box office hit after another. The other one is Liu Haoran, he hasn't made any drama since NIF2. I don't think big screen actors are necessarily better - they get many more takes to get a scene right and editing plays a huge role in their success. Not a fan of ZDY's acting she was atrocious in Sparrow. Zhang Ziyi is another fantastic big screen actor who should stay there. They are actors whose iconic looks landed them on the big screen from day one but struggle when they do dramas where there are fewer takes and many more scenes. All their flaws show up and can't get get papered over in post production.

Breaking Bad is a masterpiece - and you know I very rarely associate that word with any drama. Its impossible to remake it well in a Chinese context, especially when you have to whitewash all the immoral aspects of it. I dropped it after a few episodes I don't even know why they bothered to try.

The Chinese Breaking Bad was the recently aired Playing Go which I dropped. The other one hasn't been made yet, I deleted it bc I didn't want to post anything that hasn't been announced yet.

The cockfight was so funny and so 1990s I almost died laughing. It is also a really good way to get around filming a real cockfight and harming animals in the production. If humans on the other hand get hurt, I guess its A ok...

LMAO - constipated Guo Jing is a rather... ahem...unique?... different?... interpretation of an iconic character! And yes Jin Yong felt so strongly that Tsui Hark just doesn't understand wuxia that when he was alive he banned him from ever adapting his stories. I just personally think China will never make a good wuxia bc jianghu are all anti-establishment rebels. And China wants to erase or re-write that aspect of the genre to make them all patriots. It just misses the entire point of what a wuxia is. China does indeed make terrific patriotic historical films like Full River Red. I like Jia Ling's work a lot too - I think she has really taken modern Chinese films to a new place.

The movie world has been less receptive to idol actors. Most of them flop at the box office, making it hard to land more movies. Even ZRY’s recent movie attempt only got lukewarm reception but at least it wasn’t mocked the way LOCH was.

It depends. Some actors like Ni Ni was discovered by Zhang Yimou and immediately debuted on the big screen in a lead role. Others like Lie Jiayin, Hu Ge, Zhu Yilong start out in dramas (its easier to land drama roles). But once they can attract capital and viewers at the box office, they always prefer to make movies bc they can get a share of the box office so if its a hit, they can make boatloads of money. The biggest difficulty for most drama actors is that movies have to be live recorded. They can only dub over small portions or else they don't qualify for awards. Most drama actors can't even dub themselves, much less be live recorded. Yang Mi's lines and soft voice is one of the worse or with her popularity she'd have been on the big screen long ago. She's only made movies where she gets less than 10 lines. Lusi is another one that is obviously trying but her voice was so soft you could barely hear her in LLTG which was live recorded. At that level, no matter her popularity no serious movie director will cast her in an important role.

Yeah Chinese movie actors are in an entirely different league in terms of skill and pay. Once an actor "graduates" to the big screen, you don't really find them making that many dramas anymore. At most they will only do one drama every couple of years to stay relevant to broad audiences. And they are super picky about which directors and actors they work with. Notice there are no idol actors in this cast list.