Platinum Fox

In Joy of Life they use different camera techniques. To focus on the people themselves, they blur the background. Flashbacks are done in black and white. Shots are crisp and clear and from close range. If focused on far away they are slightly blurred. Also, all the shots with geometric shapes mean the geometric advancement of the people. When you look in a mirror with another mirror, your image goes on forever. I haven't gotten too far into Joy of Life yet (episode 30), but so far it has been an okay drama, imo. Again, once I am done, I may say something else.

Love Like the Galaxy does not use that style of camera shots. The original poster seems to not understand the purpose for the different techniques and camera angles used in LLtG. The camera shots mean something like when we are looking up at General Ling in the beginning because everyone treats him as a god. (This is done in The Double with Duke Su as a way to remind us of General Ling). During the second season you notice LBY is no longer shown that way as everyone is equal or higher than him in status. Only at one point when he puts SS on the fence is she above him. This is to say that he puts her on a pedestal, and she can do no wrong. The love is imbalanced at this time. I believe they do a shot where LBY looks up at her from this angle and then we are brought back out to see the whole image. There are many more, but you get the idea.

In Hidden Love, the camera shots in the first few episodes act like a tube going up and down (from present to past, back to present, back to the past, etc.). This reflects the tube that Harlan in The End of Eternity rides to go from past to present and the future.

As for the plot holes, it is more like rushed storytelling. The ending does not make sense (the burial vault) and the fight scene in episode 11. There are some areas where the story could have been better told.

Otherwise, I don't see any real difference between Joy of Life and LLtG.

Glad I could make you laugh and you enjoyed the drama. I really like the medical knowledge given and the cases.

I understand how you feel, however, I don't agree. Talking about this issue, especially with teenagers where the consent law is 14, is a must. You can't hide this issue and hope that it goes away. It will never go away, so girls need to know how to spot red flag males and be able to deal with them. It is why they carefully portrayed DJX as someone who did it the right way and gave Sang Qi options in her dating pool.

For me, the boy who liked her when she was 14 and 17 was creeper than DJX because he kept pursuing her even when she made it clear at 14 she didn't like him in that way.

South Korea's age of consent was 13, until a movie called Silenced came out. Now the age of consent is 20 one of the highest in the world.

As I have said before, perception drives this drama. Who is right and who is wrong for you depends on the person's character, not the age of the person.

Thank you for the discussion. I do see where you are coming from.

Thanks for explaining and I see where you are coming from. Some posters agree with you. But how can life change if you don't model for people how life should be? For me, the message to the guy is, "Treat women like they are human beings with thoughts, feelings, and dreams. Don't rush into a sexual relationship with them, get to know them first as a person."

As for the brother/sister relationship, for me, Jia Xu told the brother straight up that he was not Sang Qi's brother and he was not going to treat her as such after she turned 17. Everything he did when she was 17 could be interpreted as either what a brother would do or boyfriend depending on how comfortable people are with the relationship. Some people might call it grooming also. Yet, he did nothing to hurt her at any age. The concept of perception comes from the novel The End of Eternity. It is perception that drives the story forward and makes us either comfortable or uncomfortable as an audience about the relationship. It is a very well done story.

Thank you for your insight.

Just curious, how is this a bad influence from your perspective? From my perspective, they did an excellent job of telling girls to wait until they are mature enough to handle sex and guys who are older to wait until the girl is in college at least before having a sexual experience with them. Also, they waited to get married until she had graduated from college which I am assuming is the age of 22, so already they are telling girls to get an education before getting married. What are they glamorizing from your perspective?

Also, the novel Hidden Love is not the only book you should be reading for this drama. You should also read The End of Eternity (TEE), the book shown at least five times in the first three episodes. TEE explains what they are doing in drama when she is 14-18 and why the five year age gap instead of the seven years in the novel Hidden Love.

Princess Wan Ning is the half sister of the emperor. Her full biological brother and her are planning a rebellion. She is important because she is one of the main reasons the female lead needs to get revenge in the first place. She steals the female leads husband.

I know in the novel Hidden Love the age gap is seven years, but for the purpose of what the drama is trying to do, five years is sufficient (14 & 19, 17 & 22, 18/19 & 23/24). Many posters did not like the fact that he knew her when she was 14 and even raised concern when he said he liked her when she was 17. Even the drama argues that there are distinct intellectual gaps as well as physical gaps when she is 14 and he is 19 and when she is 17 and he is 22. At this time in her life from 14 to 19, she can consent to a sexual relationship (age of consent in China is 14). The drama says no at 14 and 17 because teens are still children, but at 17 there is a gray area. She is biologically a woman (the period scene), but she is not an adult (age of majority, 18, or marriageable age, 20). At 19 he is considered an adult (age of majority and able to consent to sex), but he can't get married until he is 22. So even the five year age gap at the times they are showing is very much an issue. Thus why the hashtag age gap. Now when she is 18/19 and he is 23/24, there is no problem and the age gap doesn't matter.

I understand what you are saying and about second leads (whatever gender). They always have it the worst in these dramas. Most of the time I feel they deserve it, but this time I felt differently. As his friend, she could have at least sat down with him and talked it out, not throw everything back in his face. This is what made him go to such extreme measures to get her attention. When you see your friend going down the wrong path, you should try to help him/her. She didn't even try to help him. If they were such good friends, she would have helped him. Even the first male lead didn't try to help him, and he was his teacher. For me, all three of the leads were selfish and immature. I expected more from the dean of the college than what we got.

Thanks for the discussion and insight.

Yes, I could see that. Most people who write on here do it to criticize the work. I have also noticed that about other popular works as well. Not a lot of comments.

You do not see him die in the end, but it is implied. It is a hopeful ending.

Thank you, I did notice that, but I am wondering if people are waiting until all three seasons come out to write.

Felt the same way and watched it without sound when she turned 18. It bugged me why she spoke in a childish voice throughout most of the drama, but I knew there must be a reason. I found it in the novel, The End of Eternity and the age of consent law 14.

You're right. She never asked for any of that and love can be one sided. My argument is was she even his friend to begin with or was he just someone she could use to get what she wanted like all the other women in his life? Did she ever really understand him as a human being or even want to?

So if you apply what Sang Qi says, she is a hypocrite. She is nice to him on the frontier. However, when she enters the college, with his help, she total ignores him and chases after the FML. At first, it is because of the bet and after that it is because she has fallen in love with FML. She ditches the SML even as a friend when she finds out he is trying to court her. She doesn't sit down with him and talk out. If they really had been friends, she would have taken the time to do this.

This is why I do have sympathy for him because the women in his life just use and abuse him. The only one who doesn't is Song Jia Win.

He is in five scenes: the party for him after SS and LY break their engagement (season 1), the scene where he is with Yang Yang while she is doing the household books (season 1?) (, montage of the four weddings at the Cheng residence (season 2). He is Yang Yang's beau.

Thank you, I think I understand and see where you are coming from. Yes, I did have problems with some of the scenes in this drama, but felt it flowed better than most of the dramas I have watched and loved how the camera shots held significant meaning to them. I don't find that in Joy of Life, but I could have missed them. Also, I feel there are a great many discussion topics in LLtG that I just don't find in other dramas even though they are about the same thing.

Presently, I am on Season 1 episode 26 of Joy of Life, so I will see how I feel about it in the end. It took me awhile to watch this one at first, but once I started I couldn't stop and ended up loving it. The same might happen for Joy of Life. But at present I don't see much difference.

You should see him in Jewel in the Crown and Jewel in the Palace. Both are longish, but very good.

Please explain to me how this is just a regular historical drama and Joy of Life is at a different level. I started watching Joy of Life three weeks ago and am on episode 20. Ling Bu Yi seems to be on the same level as Fan Xian when it comes to avenging ordinary people. Poetic justice seems to be happening in both. So I am curious as to how they are different in level. Douban rating for LLtG 7.6 Joy of Life 7.9. Not much difference in my opinion.

I ask because, for me, she is even worse than Shao Shang's mother when it comes to disciplining the children. Whenever she is with the children (both hers and Shen'an's), she smacks, insults, bullies, and belittles all of them, except for LBY. LBY is the favored one. How the parents treat their children in this drama is on point from a historical lens. If you look at mom through this lens, you will see that SS' mother is quite progressive in her disciplining of Shao Shang. When SS doesn't want to study, mom takes away snacks, not survival food. Mom actually tries to get her up to par in reading and writing with the noble men's children, but Shao Shang thinks she is good enough just as she is and rebels. When she is put in the situation where she needs to up her game, notice she leaves the banquet pretty quickly when the girls start harassing her for the very things that she is unruly and illiterate. She understands and is extremely uncomfortable with this talk about her. Peer talk is sometimes more effective than adult talk.

When LBY proposes marriage, mom is only repeating what all the noble families know about Shao Shang, but the emperor and empress don't because they only know what LBY has told them. Reputation was and still is very important in Chinese culture. Mom never once says that Shao Shang is stupid (something repeatedly said by Consort Yue to her children). in fact, mom writes the 3rd Aunt praising SS for her innovative ideas. Mom understands that SS wants to make a difference in the world. Something SS will not be able to do at home, but can in the palace.

I agree with you and understand where you are coming from. Through a modern lens, it does look like mom does not love SS, but actually mom loves her enough to make sure she accepts responsibility for her actions and not to embarrass the family. Something the princesses do not do until Shao Shang comes along and forces the emperor, the empress, Consort Yue, and the noble families to discipline their children.

You may not have liked the way mom disciplined SS or how she "favored" Yang Yang, but all kids are different. There is no one way of disciplining that fits all kids. Parents have to find which disciplinary method works the best. Notice it took killing 5th princess' harem to get her to start acting like a decent human being and yes that is extreme.

As for Consort Yue and the empress, what would Consort Yue have to be jealous about the relationship between the emperor and the empress? CY knows that the emperor does not love the empress. Nor does the empress love the emperor. In fact the emperor treats the empress as an after thought most of the time and especially at her own birthday party. Even though it is not out in the open, there is much more jealousy on the empress' part. Her daughter (5th princess) tells the audience what is going on in the royal harem. It's why Consort Yue smacks her. Shao Shang helps the empress get what she wants, not to be empress, but by this time it is too late for her to find someone who will really love her for herself. Now if the emperor had also married LBY's aunt, that would have been a different story.

Thank you for the discussion.

So Lulu what did you think of Consort Yue?

Thank you. Did you watch The Double?