1. Lots of romance. The romance is kind of the point for quite a lot of the plot - at least it's kind of subtle…
You know how some of the best characters are those with tragic destinies? Especially if they're good people, to boot? That's Xiao PingZhang.
He's worth watching for the half drama he's in, despite the ending. He has a purpose, he loves his family (finally a TRUE family man), everybody loves him back for good reason - he's practical, wise, quick-witted, and loyal. An actual true hero :) I wish I'd have seen more like his character in costume dramas.
He's the one I like best in the drama - give it one more try, for him :)
So isn't technically the 2nd Joe the stand-in? We never get to know anything about him. What about his story?…
It is the novel set up, this is an adaptation (and a very faithful one, at least for the main part - some changes in the ending parts. The novel is also a HEA).
Second Joe was gay and tried to commit suicide because he was really depressed (he was in love, being cheated on and then that person left him. His mother also wasn't as understanding because she wanted him to be safer and happy). He was rescued in time but entered a coma, and when first Joe had his accident, they switched bodies and second Joe's soul was gone (he only wanted to have his mother taken care of, and not to return). They don't share the body and don't interact. And since first Joe died for real (in the novel, the bone-finding was closer to the end and more impactful to the story), there's no chance of a switch-back.
1. Lots of romance. The romance is kind of the point for quite a lot of the plot - at least it's kind of subtle…
No, he's TingSheng, the unrecognized son of the (original) Crown Prince. Since he was born in prison and never recorded in the royal registries, MCS and JingYan couldn't re-enter him in the royal succession line and give him back his rights. But JingYan adopted him and made him an (officially not-related-by-blood) prince of the dynasty.
He's the kid MCS and the princess meet while he's sweeping the stairs and sneaking out books, and MCS promises to get out of the royal prison for slave children (and does).
In the second season, MCS and JingYan are long gone, JingYan's son is now the emperor, and TingSheng has two sons - one by adoption and one by blood (the younger). NiF2 is the story of their family.
In NiF the novel, if I remember correctly, they found Fei Liu somewhere and took him in the Jianghu because he was very talented, even if he's somewhat strange, LOL.
Why no one is taking about "old" joe? He is still in another body 😭 Though he is loved now but still in another…
What is there to talk about?! They all SEE he's in another body. He'll get counselling if he needs it - but with the body came a family and a new chance at life and finding the truths of his old life, so I guess it's worth it in the end.
This is how you do it. I'll keep my hatred of novel-Ming, but the drama-Ming kind of redeemed himself. It helps a lot that he's so damned cute, LOL.
What I most wanted - the wholesome mom-and-son relationship - was done perfectly, and I am in love with it just as much as I was in the novel.
Top notch production values, and everyone got their good acting game on (well, Tong not so much but oh well), and the changes helped the story move along better. Overall, I liked it a lot.
Now can someone get Rebirth of a Movie Star on screen like this?!! Please, pretty please, with a cherry on top!
Still watching only for Rain. Does his chara not have any other life outside his revenge plot though?
The FL is kind of static, still, nothing really happens through her involvement, things happen TO her and that's it. For almost half of the drama done, that's a bit too little, IMHO. Here's hoping things move along faster, if they want an action drama. As for romance, there's very little hint so far, and by now I really hope they keep it that way.
Ep 3's parking on the beach really pushed some of my buttons though - don't freaking drive/park on the beach, please!
PS I actually started liking the cheating husband a lot more than her - he at least looks alive.
What sticks with me after two eps, though, is "Don't hit Jin Bao on his head, he's stupid enough as it is" LOL.
The leads are seriously pretty, particularly the ML. The MC isn't so far behind either, LOL. I haven't read this novel so I don't have any expectations (though she did write Professional Body Double, that I DID read, so I kind of have some hints about some parts of it). You can see it's not too high a production budget (I mean, they're mad daring already, doing this with actual mainland actors and crews, as it seems, we shouldn't expect them to sacrifice their whole future for the drama) but they're doing the best they can with it.
My favourite so far is the other one of XiaoBao's guards, ZhaoCai, LOL, the tattle-teller. He's cute and has the best expressions.
So I'll just go along for the ride - an actually uncensored danmei brought to drama, I'll take what I can get! :D
Just to clarify, regardless of outside pressure, the choice was his. My heart aches for his family and friends,…
We're all individuals. Also, things have definitely changed since almost 80 years ago. For those you mentioned, there WAS a certain sense of communality among them, they were in it together, there are stories of people who tried to shield others as much as possible, they had a purpose - to survive. That was a total crisis situation. The things that occured in WW2 concentration camps and what happened to LSK are not comparable, first on the scale of things, then on the reasons behind them.
What happened to him was on a very personal level, and he was alone and probably feeling he was taking down his own family, too. I cannot go into the mind of someone who gets that depressed and desperate, but I can try being compassionate. The fact that others have it worse (though it depends on their own situations and intentions) does not mean LSK's choice is to be blamed on him. He WAS driven, hounded into this, and to blame him for wanting to escape it is cruel.
Then again, we each live inside our own minds, so we each make our own decisions each and every time. I wish nobody has to go through the same thing again, for whatever reason, and that it hadn't happened to him, either. He was a great actor and did not deserve all the sudden hate and harassment and the fact he's being missed every time his name is mentioned should tell you that, already.
it literally my first BL drama, and made me hooked at to this point 🫶
Yeah, TGCF is kind of too long for me too, LOL. But I do like Hua Cheng :D
Then again, SQQ's inner monologue and his interactions with the System in SVSSS are hilarious :D
If I were to pick my favourite danmei of all time, though, I think I couldn't... I like so many of them for so many different reasons, I can't just settle on one :D
it literally my first BL drama, and made me hooked at to this point 🫶
TGCF (HOB) is longer and even more intricate, and it does cover a lot more xianxia lore, so that's why it might be people seem to like it better. (And there's Hua Cheng, who is... well, Crimson Rain Sought Flower :D) And SVSSS is so damn funny!! So I can see why people would like it (I myself LOVE Shen Qingqiu!!)
But yes, MDZS is the best of the three of them - and there are so many more great danmei out there, it's not even funny.
Main takeaway is that Euro24 is really messing up my drama watching schedule LOL. (We got eliminated a long time ago, I don't even have any stakes in this. LPT: don't live with soccer fans).
"Thankfully, there weren't any casualties save for a few security personnel who were injured." Am I stupid or…
That was the cover-your-ass official statement. They would probably deal with any actual victims on the hush-hush side, giving their families money and whatnot to keep it quiet.
And yeah, that's cold asf. That girl was an innocent victim she doesn't really know - but the bodyguard who was also shot is supposedly someone she knows way better, since he's been with her for quite some time. She never asked about victims once she returned, and never seemed interested in making SDY tell her anything about collateral victims, either. She doesn't care or is (for the benefit of the doubt) still in shock.
He can see supernatural creatures and help other see them too, by drawing them in ink. He's a calligrapher (runs in the family) and through his art he can break the bonds tying the creatures to unwanted existence/continuous pain.
And he sports a devastating mullet - that's a whole superpower all onto itself, LOL.
Yeah, I'll just watch this for Rain, because I could find 4 dramas that this one reminded me of, right off the top of my head. I guess I could find more if I really tried, LOL.
Anyway - some cool scenes (did they blow half their budget with the first explodey scene, LOL?), I like the cold type of ML, I guess they're hinting someone killed someone else what with all the intro snapshots into the present, I'm glad they're not stretching it out with the FL's past career, and so on.
I really wish they'd have changed the MIL over-the-top-extra character to someone cold and calculated, I cannot take seriously someone who's supposedly a great businesswoman but who throws things and keeps yelling just because. And the husband's hair is giving me the ick, LOL.
This is from an official TL of the novel (illustrating an actual event in the story), so sorry to destroy your pure hetero world. Also, the drama is a Censored Adaptation of a Same-Sex Original Work, so yeah, it's censored, but it's BL and no doubt about it.
Homosexual persons exist and have existed since mankind appeared. Love between same-sex persons is possible, and is just as wholesome as love between different-sex partners. Stop judging others for what they choose to watch and for what they like - just enjoy what you like too without dissing others.
Then again, the beauty of it is that the censoring allows people who don't usually watch danmei to make up their own opinion on the strength of the plot and characters without being pestered by any explicit romance (as, for example, in the straight xianxia costume dramas).
P. S. If your first and only contact with BL is Boku no Pico... girl, seek help. That manga and/or anime is/are rather hard to just happen onto out of the blue, given its subject - unless you explicitly are looking for shotacon, which is sending eeck vibes already. Also, times are changing - that kind of manga aren't welcome in Japan either, any more.
I'm on volume 3 (near end) and Lan Zhan there is such a flirty one (when drunk, but less when sober) with Wei…
Yeah, well, he can do it sober too, LOL, just wait til you get to the extras hahaha~
Also... just in case you didn't notice yet, but it's really true that still waters run deep. Out of the two of them, which would you choose to be the one with the kink? *wink*
What's Taem's problem, though?! She VERY MUCH gave the guy the wrong signals, if she's not interested in him at…
She looks uncomfortable about it, though - like she wants Yak now, but she "just realised" it. She's unhappy he's going to the ball with Dee, she's itching to say something to him all the time, she gives him longing looks - it's a 180 degree change of attitude towards him. There was never anything remotely not-platonic between them (from her part), and now there is.
I guess there has to be some more story to fill 12 eps, but I'd rather they don't split again because of a woman (or anyone else).
3 
He's worth watching for the half drama he's in, despite the ending. He has a purpose, he loves his family (finally a TRUE family man), everybody loves him back for good reason - he's practical, wise, quick-witted, and loyal. An actual true hero :) I wish I'd have seen more like his character in costume dramas.
He's the one I like best in the drama - give it one more try, for him :)
Second Joe was gay and tried to commit suicide because he was really depressed (he was in love, being cheated on and then that person left him. His mother also wasn't as understanding because she wanted him to be safer and happy). He was rescued in time but entered a coma, and when first Joe had his accident, they switched bodies and second Joe's soul was gone (he only wanted to have his mother taken care of, and not to return). They don't share the body and don't interact. And since first Joe died for real (in the novel, the bone-finding was closer to the end and more impactful to the story), there's no chance of a switch-back.
He's the kid MCS and the princess meet while he's sweeping the stairs and sneaking out books, and MCS promises to get out of the royal prison for slave children (and does).
In the second season, MCS and JingYan are long gone, JingYan's son is now the emperor, and TingSheng has two sons - one by adoption and one by blood (the younger). NiF2 is the story of their family.
In NiF the novel, if I remember correctly, they found Fei Liu somewhere and took him in the Jianghu because he was very talented, even if he's somewhat strange, LOL.
What I most wanted - the wholesome mom-and-son relationship - was done perfectly, and I am in love with it just as much as I was in the novel.
Top notch production values, and everyone got their good acting game on (well, Tong not so much but oh well), and the changes helped the story move along better. Overall, I liked it a lot.
Now can someone get Rebirth of a Movie Star on screen like this?!! Please, pretty please, with a cherry on top!
The FL is kind of static, still, nothing really happens through her involvement, things happen TO her and that's it. For almost half of the drama done, that's a bit too little, IMHO. Here's hoping things move along faster, if they want an action drama. As for romance, there's very little hint so far, and by now I really hope they keep it that way.
Ep 3's parking on the beach really pushed some of my buttons though - don't freaking drive/park on the beach, please!
PS I actually started liking the cheating husband a lot more than her - he at least looks alive.
The leads are seriously pretty, particularly the ML. The MC isn't so far behind either, LOL. I haven't read this novel so I don't have any expectations (though she did write Professional Body Double, that I DID read, so I kind of have some hints about some parts of it). You can see it's not too high a production budget (I mean, they're mad daring already, doing this with actual mainland actors and crews, as it seems, we shouldn't expect them to sacrifice their whole future for the drama) but they're doing the best they can with it.
My favourite so far is the other one of XiaoBao's guards, ZhaoCai, LOL, the tattle-teller. He's cute and has the best expressions.
So I'll just go along for the ride - an actually uncensored danmei brought to drama, I'll take what I can get! :D
What happened to him was on a very personal level, and he was alone and probably feeling he was taking down his own family, too. I cannot go into the mind of someone who gets that depressed and desperate, but I can try being compassionate. The fact that others have it worse (though it depends on their own situations and intentions) does not mean LSK's choice is to be blamed on him. He WAS driven, hounded into this, and to blame him for wanting to escape it is cruel.
Then again, we each live inside our own minds, so we each make our own decisions each and every time. I wish nobody has to go through the same thing again, for whatever reason, and that it hadn't happened to him, either. He was a great actor and did not deserve all the sudden hate and harassment and the fact he's being missed every time his name is mentioned should tell you that, already.
Then again, SQQ's inner monologue and his interactions with the System in SVSSS are hilarious :D
If I were to pick my favourite danmei of all time, though, I think I couldn't... I like so many of them for so many different reasons, I can't just settle on one :D
But yes, MDZS is the best of the three of them - and there are so many more great danmei out there, it's not even funny.
And yeah, that's cold asf. That girl was an innocent victim she doesn't really know - but the bodyguard who was also shot is supposedly someone she knows way better, since he's been with her for quite some time. She never asked about victims once she returned, and never seemed interested in making SDY tell her anything about collateral victims, either. She doesn't care or is (for the benefit of the doubt) still in shock.
I think she's way too cold...
And he sports a devastating mullet - that's a whole superpower all onto itself, LOL.
Anyway - some cool scenes (did they blow half their budget with the first explodey scene, LOL?), I like the cold type of ML, I guess they're hinting someone killed someone else what with all the intro snapshots into the present, I'm glad they're not stretching it out with the FL's past career, and so on.
I really wish they'd have changed the MIL over-the-top-extra character to someone cold and calculated, I cannot take seriously someone who's supposedly a great businesswoman but who throws things and keeps yelling just because. And the husband's hair is giving me the ick, LOL.
Also, Sasaki, after getting TKO-d: BESTO EXPERIENSO!! LOL, he's so over the top. I like him, too :D
This ep also felt a lot like filler, but I don't mind - I still like Great's smile :D
https://modao-zushi.fandom.com/wiki/Novel/Gallery?file=MDZS_RS_%28Internal_Illustration_12%29.png
This is from an official TL of the novel (illustrating an actual event in the story), so sorry to destroy your pure hetero world. Also, the drama is a Censored Adaptation of a Same-Sex Original Work, so yeah, it's censored, but it's BL and no doubt about it.
Homosexual persons exist and have existed since mankind appeared. Love between same-sex persons is possible, and is just as wholesome as love between different-sex partners. Stop judging others for what they choose to watch and for what they like - just enjoy what you like too without dissing others.
Then again, the beauty of it is that the censoring allows people who don't usually watch danmei to make up their own opinion on the strength of the plot and characters without being pestered by any explicit romance (as, for example, in the straight xianxia costume dramas).
P. S. If your first and only contact with BL is Boku no Pico... girl, seek help. That manga and/or anime is/are rather hard to just happen onto out of the blue, given its subject - unless you explicitly are looking for shotacon, which is sending eeck vibes already. Also, times are changing - that kind of manga aren't welcome in Japan either, any more.
Also... just in case you didn't notice yet, but it's really true that still waters run deep. Out of the two of them, which would you choose to be the one with the kink? *wink*
I guess there has to be some more story to fill 12 eps, but I'd rather they don't split again because of a woman (or anyone else).