PeachBlossomGoddess

I don't think the writing of the character is bad. I just find the line delivery and the voice does not fit. Since I rely solely on listening, this aspect bugs me more than most people.

Do you know if she is dubbing herself. The dubbing list isn't out yet but I can tell Chen Xiao is doing himself.

My only issue so far is the FL. I am not familiar with the actress but I don't love her acting at all and especially find her voice acting/dubber super annoying - every time she speaks I cringe. Its to the point every time she pops up on screen I grit my teeth and have to stop myself from FF.

I think their rivalry in the future is inevitable. Li Qin's father is a very unethical businessman. They will certainly end up on different sides, esp as Gu's success threatens Li's business empire. It is quite obvious the plot will head in that direction.

It was so incredibly stupid it doesn't even deserve to be in the same sentence as NIF. I don't think I managed to even get past 2 episodes. And most international audience did at all not understand the subtext of the director scolding the actors in the guise of praise when he told them to go live life a little before trying to act.

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I don't think he really believes that. It is just an excuse - he just needs money for bribes and is willing to bully the entire settlement to extract it from the community one way or another.

This year I am already dropping a bit more than half of them. At this rate next year I will probably only end up watching only 3 or 4 of them in total. Which is fine bc I think the overall quantity and quality of the non-idol dramas keep increasing. 😅

Yeah its one of the reasons I love STOTD and JOL. Written by such well educated writers with superior language skills. As opposed to all that crappy writing and cheesy lines in vernacular Chinese by web novelists. And then to listen to idol actors muck up even such simple lines! If I have to face palm myself too many times I have no choice but to drop. Can't have my melon seed face swell up into a melon shape face!!!😅😉😈

It’s really fun to watch Chinese actor being able narrate their dialogue with clarity.
This! It is why I drop so many dramas with bad dialogue and bad lines.

Yes I think so too but I am a fan of the politics of the period. I can see how people who don't like historical intrigue and ignore that part think the cases were too dumbed down by comparison to the other seasons.

This is a great explanation for why it was super controversial:
https://kisskh.at/53539-a-love-never-lost#comment-10621403

Any content featuring important historical figures or moments get an extra hard look. And Qing history is more recent and better recorded so it’s harder to circumvent the “distorting history” part. But the period itself is not banned it just faces harder scrutiny bc of that. On the positive side, some of the real figures were so villainous it’s easy to write them and get it through censorship bc they are just literally following history. It just becomes complicated if they are not depicted as outright villain figures which is what happened in A Love Never Lost. They still managed to get around it by changing his name and cutting his screen time. And it still ended up being a terrific drama according to my mom - I haven’t gotten round to watching it yet.

I use the word gangs a bit loosely bc that is how they are portrayed in most old HK TVB dramas. They were actually local monopolies that had permission to conduct foreign trade with Westerners. Naturally a chunk of that trade would have been opium. And many of the figures featured are real historical figures, often controversial. Though I don’t know specifically why it’s struggling with censorship I can totally see why it would have a problem if any of these figures are glamorized or glorified bc the opium trade is still a a very shameful and sensitive topic in history and the figures involved cannot be “absolved” by simply having them dump opium in the sea. The content matter is very tricky and not easy to present in a historically accurate and inoffensive way. But this has nothing to do with the period - The Fated General is another story (very early dynasty) featuring a real figure that struggled through censorship.

I am just pointing out that the vague guidelines you highlight above apply to all dramas and are not specific to Qing or any specific dynasty. China is a moral society, all dramas have to meet the same guidelines which are difficult bc they are by definition somewhat subjective, in addition to not distorting history.

Hahaha... Khal Drogo surely was Manchurian!!!

A Love Never Lost was pulled and edited substantially bc the protagonist was a vile traitor in history but was glorified by the drama into a hero. This angered a lot of people. That's why it had to be halted and re-cut.

That's complete nonsense - Qing dynasty lasted 270 years and was China's final and most recent dynasty - of course it is not banned. I have watched at least one airing Qing dynasty drama every year for the last few years - Heroes 2020 and Heroes 2024, Fox Volant, Master of Cheongsam, The Long River etc etc etc). They are just not popular with most MDL audiences. Its possible palace harem dramas were banned but I would not want to be quoted on even that.

The 13 Hongs is most likely held up in censorship bc it is probably quite rebellious and glorifies gangsters - yups Hongs or industry associations were basically gangs back in the day. It is why outside of The Bund, some of the most popular HK dramas of the day about gambling kings etc never got remade. It also looks like it may feature the opium trade which is a very sensitive subject. My sense is that outside of the period, it is nothing like The Legend of Magnate.

Oh absolutely, you are right - I also rolled my eyes at the whole XJ damsel in distress arc. Though if I remember correctly the final case in S1 also involved XJ getting rescued... Nonetheless I overall enjoyed the spy case and how the season ended. I think one of the repeated complaints is the romance is no good or there is not enough romance in this series and it seems like they listened but went a little bit over board this season. Though I think it was a creative decision by the production to write in more romance that is independent of who the directs it.

Yes but I think this season they deliberately toned down the cases bc they wanted to focus on the political dynamics and also move the relationships forward. There would have been too much going on if the cases were also very complex.