ShortCircuit

As far as I know, at least in LLTG she dubbed herself, so it might be the same (original) voice in Hidden Love, too.

Usually, when they're dubbed by voice actors, there are credits for the actors too, so if there's none, it generally means they dubbed their own parts.

He is one of the (innumerable) bastards of Jin GuangShan, the Jin Clan leader (Jin ZiXuan's father - JZX is his only legitimate offspring). Actually, MengYao's wife was also JGS's bastard daughter, and so was Mo XuanYu - who's body WWX gets resurrected in. JGS really had a wandering eye.

Anyway, MengYao's mother was a favourite courtesan that JGS had promised to free and take up as a concubine, and she had some education (which she imparted to her son). But JGS never did keep his promise, so she ended up dying pitifully when she got older and unwanted. She was the only one who really loved MengYao in his formative years, and the only person he venerated throughout his life.

So he had the brothel she worked in burned down with the people inside because they had disrespected her when she was alive (there are some scenes in the novel where there are burned out corpses crawling out) and built a temple to the goddess of mercy GuanYin over it, that has a statue supposedly looking like his mother. Her ashes/body are buried underneath the temple. That's what he's desperately looking for when he's ready to flee, because he wants to take his mother's remains with him.

But her ashes/body got removed and Nie MingJue's pieced-together body was put inside instead - you can definitely suspect Nie HuaiSang for it. He's the sneakiest planner of revenges ever.

The drama tried to explain as best as they could - but there's also censorship on a whole lot more than the danmei part (which, BTW, is obviously every person's choice to dive in or not :D I was just trying to explain that the low ratings and/or too critic reviews are comparing apples to oranges, and considering the restrictions, the producers did the very best they could, while not including everything - because they could not include those parts no matter what. TBH, I like the quiet bromance - though for me it's evidently a love story - much more than if they were allowed to put in extreme PDAs. I think the quiet tone fits the overall feel of the story better).

Also, for me the central theme is staying true to yourself, no matter what the outsiders will have you do/turn into. They (all of them) acted according to their own nature -from heroes to villains... but some of them moved from time to time in a gray area, which is just human.

Yes, it definitely is. Stay with it for a while, if it looks a bit clumsy (it's not, but it might appear so to people who are used to dramas that dive right into the main story) - for anyone not caught in it from the beginning, it starts turning from around eps 15-17 (it might seem like a lot of time, but it's not - eps are 45 mins long, including OP and ED, so the whole series isn't as long as it appears... sadly).

For a heads-up, eps 1-2, then 33-50 are set in the present time, while eps 3-33 are a long flashback to a (glorious) back story of how it all came to be. Don't skip it.

I'm promising you an untamed hero, a love hidden in glances and small actions, redemption arcs, vengeance, sacrifice, love stories in all forms and shapes (dammit, Madam Yu!), undead cinnamon buns, the cutest bunch of juniors to ever gaggle around a most charming rogue, the most beautiful brothers' relationships (yes plural) ever, and a HEA. So there you have it.

Will you dive in? :D

I have read the novel, and watched the donghua (including the chibi one), and listened to the audio drama too. (And if it helps, for context, I read a lot of danmei since watching TU and getting drawn into the cweb novels world).

The drama team did the best they could. Yes, it's not perfect, but I promise you... There are exactly 3 (three) scenes that could be classified as danmei in the whole novel, and one of them involves a (totally clueless) blindfolded WWX getting a mysterious kiss, and then the rest of about 99.9% of the story there are no other instances of talking about romantic feelings among men. But those two remaining scenes are epic, so it colours the whole story, going back (they happen right at the end of the novel). Even IF the drama COULD have included them, not a lot of the main plot would have changed (basically nothing, but we would have gotten the most shameless public confession ever, which is a heartbreaking loss, not having it...)

The characterisation is spot-on, the main plot lines are faithfully followed, what they added made the story a bit more cohesive and gave more screen time to VERY important support charas (like JiangLi and Wen Qing, for example), and they also cleaned up the timeline a bit so it's easier to follow.

Yes, purists will find fault with it if they wanted to... but IMHO, it's one of the best adaptations of a danmei novel to drama EVER (not that there are too many of them yet. I had a lot of hope for the 2ha adaptation, but I guess we won't be seeing it any time soon :( )

So don't mind the ultra-criticising reviews AND ratings. After all, if you enjoyed the story, that's all that matters. If you never decide to read the novel for yourself, that's fine too. (There are other, easier entries into the danmei world, if you're ever interested).

ETA For novel readers, I didn't include the confession in the 3 scenes - those are the kiss, the bathtub and the Everyday Means Everyday scene, obviously LOL.

Too pretty to be real?!

Challenge accepted.

Obviously LYX as TTJ (particularly as the tormented prince, because that's who I fell for the first time...) (But LYX is one of my faves in everything he ever was in).

Xu Kai as Li Ni (if anyone here hasn't watched Wonderland of Love - highly recommended. This man's eyelashes are dreamy).

Chen ZheYuan as JiaXu in Hidden Love - he's an anime character!! He looks DRAWN, not a human at all, LOL.

Hou MingHao (Neo Hou) as Wang Ye in I Am Nobody - OMG I used to have a little crush on him before, but I am totally in awe of his Wang Ye. I'll just have to re-watch the drama for him, LOL.

Xiao Zhan... just being Xiao Zhan. I'll take XZ with his cat, too, LOL.

... For starters.

It's slimmed down to mostly the more romantic part, cutting out a lot of the details of the main story. BUT at the same time, the eps are a bit longer, so in the end, not that much is cut.

It's definitely a watch-AFTER you've watched the original cut of the drama, mostly for the fans of the novel who just want to see the more personal scenes a lot more than they happen in the original. There are (very few) longer scenes and a different arrangement of the last scenes, so that the ending is a bit more clear for whoever got lost in the original, LOL, and that's about it.

If you decide to watch this, watch the original. This is based on a danmei novel (Chinese BL) but the story is NOT focusing on the danmei part (given Chinese censorship) and TBH, the novel didn't, either (because WWX, the protagonist, is clueless throughout both his lifetimes, LOL.) The story is pretty epic, and worth the time. And if you're in it just for the bromance, it'll be enough. For everything more, there's the novel and then the donghua and the audio drama.

It's hyped for good reason, IMHO, and totally worth at least a look (or more).

Most costume cdramas get filmed in Hengdian (and some locations, too, but mostly on set in Hengdian). They are being filmed simultaneously, too, and there's way too much noise for the production team to be able to keep the original sound. So dub is absolutely necessary.

(Also, they're not just filming in paralel, they're usually using the same sets, LOL, so that you can see the same street/inn/forest over and over in some dramas. For example, that long lantern-lighted street where WWX meets Wen Ning again in the rainy night makes a nice appearance in Joy of Life, too - with absolutely the same styling, nothing changed... even the wet pavement, LOL. The sets are free to use, I think I read somewhere, but they definitely have to block time on them since there are so many productions going on at once).

Then again, China has way too many accents. In order for everyone to understand the actors (and not get thrown off the story when someone supposedly born in the north speaks with a southern accents and the like), they used to employ voice actors who had the correct/standard Mandarin accent and/or the type of voice the producers wanted (more manly, more girly, you get the idea.) That's also why in original release (meant for Chinese audiences) there are Chinese subtitles. Presumably for the hearing impaired people, too, but mostly because of the accents.

Lately though, there's been some crackdown on voice acting in dubbing dramas, so some actors and actresses (who can speak standard Mandarin and have good voices) are using their own voices for the dubbing (dubbing still remains). It's happening in modern-time dramas more often, but in wuxia/xianxia too. So far, I've listened to LYX's original voice in TTEOTM, Cheng Yi's in MLC, XZ's in SBMS, and so on, and so forth. But it's still a newish trend, and there are always reasons to still use voice acting - for example, some of the big stars can't always be around for dubbing due to scheduling issues so they have to use someone else. For most of the older dramas, though, there are always voice actors.

Aaaaannnd.... SAFE!!

They could've left the last scene on for longer, just sayin'.

And there's no cat (but in the picture.) The cat should've been in, LOL. Eventually he could've been an oneorangebraincell boy, maybe :D

Nevermind - this was cute! The plot is tried-and-true so no huge surprises there, but there really was a lot of great chemistry ongoing there (including in the support charas AND particularly for the female support charas, LOL, they can really show a fujoshi's mindset, makes me wonder hahaha!) Short and to the point, I wish it was longer (and with the same length eps though :D)

Nice way to start the new year!

And off topic - hopefully there were no victims in today's quake and that everyone continues to be safe in Japan (no tsunami, fingers crossed!)

Nobody expects him to be alive. His demise was so infamous, story-tellers are entertaining people with it.

Also, from the people who have seen him by ep2, he was masked in front of those who knew him from before, and the rest were too young to have ever met him in his previous life.

Don't worry - eps 3-33 are a long flashback, so that (the recognition) won't come into play - and then, when they return to the present timeline, he'll either be masked or in front of people who don't really know who he is... until the reveal. (Don't skip the flashback either, it's the long story of how everything came about).

In the novel and donghua (animation), it's easy to do - WWX doesn't look as he used to, since he's now in Mo XuanYu's body. But in the live action, Xiao Zhan fits the character so perfectly they decided to keep him and use the mask (and powders, though they're just mentioning the powders, LOL) to make him ~unrecognizable~ to whoever might have known him.

LWJ already knows anyway (and it's not because of the face) :D

You know, that partner of DooSik's... He's pretty intuitive himself. Almost as if he were a cop hahaha :D (don't point it out, I know).

OMG poor BaekDoo, the second-hand embarassment over the 40k won killed me, I can't imagine what it would be like for the whole town to find out about it - before he even left the building, LOL. Ouch.

I like how this is going. But for some (totally un-pervert) reason, I REALLY would like to see some more ssireum matches. It's not about the half-naked men wrestling with each other, I promise. It's about the sport and stuff.

*crossing fingers behind my back*

...yo. :D

China doesn't allow anything danmei (BL) to be explicit. So yes, it's based on a famous danmei novel, but it's toned down enough that if you want to, you can take it as a great bromance. Yet at the same time, if you have eyes to see, you'll see it. It depends on how you want to look at it.

There aren't any spicy scenes (or even dialogues) though.

Even if there's a romantic thread in the novel, the main plot is the same and it's NOT the romance. If you're interested, watch it for the story, not for the bromance. It is definitely worth the time.

They are not different endings... just the final scenes are re-ordered. Myself, I prefer the original series' ED. The SE's ED though is the one that "should" have been the official one, but they didn't choose it for some reason. This is the first time I'm hearing of a Japanese different ED.

ETA Found some YT explanation - apparently the J-ED keeps the SE version ending but WITH the NHS talk included and the mountain scene (that is not in the SE). So, nope, not that different at all.

For anyone (who HASN'T read the novel) who wants to know how it ends in the novel... Well. The audio drama got you covered. NSFW though, just in case you don't know what you're getting into, LOL. (The actual ending - as in the novel - starts around minute 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMMTj6OYWC8&list=PLam1udaCcKqE_2FXpCdJjq2le8Z20yvyy&index=26 )

This drama is great... still in 2x speed.

PS CEW is a great kisser, or at least he makes them look... amazing.

Did you notice SamSoon yet? Because let me tell you, they should name typhoons by her name, LOL. She's the best spinster to ever wed in this drama :D

1. The Jo family had three children - YeJin (female, only surviving one), the younger son, SoonDeok's ex-husband, now dead, and also the eldest son, also dead. So, two sons, in all.

2. No, she's not. She adopted him.

3. No, the other one (the eldest) was falling in love with a man at the time his father killed him. He was already married, too - the wife was also killed on the FIL's orders. (Actually that's what they're nailing Minister Jo with, because they CAN'T say why Eldest was killed unless they show everybody the proof of the plot against the Crown Prince, and that would definitely wipe out the whole Jo family, no matter if they're guilty or not.)

4. They're not related in any way. SoonDeok and her brother (Lt. Jung) saved her life when she was escaping from the whole mess of Eldest' killing and framing the assassination on her and her husband (now dead).

The drama timeline is better - the plotline goes linear. Instead of numerous flashbacks, as in the donghua and the novel, they made it one long flashback to the whole story and only then returned to the present timeline. It makes a whole lot more sense AND all the numerous callbacks hit differently when you KNOW what they're referring to. And the reveal - you know which one - is presented exactly as in the novel, MUCH better than in the donghua, where it was left to the last ep and didn't hit as deeply as it does in the original story and in the drama.

The music is better - I am still in awe with it, from the WangXian/WuJi theme to the BGM and character songs (this is my ABSOLUTE favourite theme, Grass/Greenery/Cao Mu - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8hMzV1GWoM When you're listening to it for the first time, you'll know why.) To be clear though, the donghua music (AND the audio drama music) are also great. The music in everything MDZS/TU is absolutely perfect. Even the FMVs are something else, LOL :D

A whole LOT more plot is reserved to the female characters (much more than in the novel and donghua, though they're present more in the donghua than in the novel, too) - there are individual storylines for JianLi, Madam Yu, Wen Qing and Ah-Qing, too. If you liked JianLi in the donghua, you'll LOVE her in TU. She's awesome. Also, Madam Yu is SO bad-ass.

The paralel stories are also done to perfection - if you cried for Xiao XingChen and Song Lan, your heart is going to break again... and it's amazing how interesting Xue Yang can become when given just a little hint of humanity.

So yeah, definitely watch the drama. There will be differences (they are forced to dance around the central theme more than the donghua, there are extra bits of story and parts they did differently), but it works. There will be lesser parts too - the SFX might have been better, but then, the donghua only has to animate them, the liveaction drama can't do that. But sometimes, less is more :D

And not the last bit... Xiao Zhan as WWX totally nails it.

Some FMVs (because why not? :D) not too spoilery, because you already know the story:

The fan-made trailer (IMHO it's better than the original trailer - it needs subs on):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ldvydu34Is

The cultivators' fighting FMV (because it's awesome :D) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzdtZiuwChM

And why not... the love hints :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLLumzo__GA

PS There's an ongoing donghua for TGCF too, in the middle of the second season by now. Hua Cheng looks beautiful drawn, IMHO (and also, amazing OST, for both seasons). MXTX really does write great novels, you should try them (after MDZS, my favourite is SVSSS LOL).

PPS Make sure not to miss the chibi donghua, LOL. MDZS Q: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T15okAJuoso&list=PL1XL0duQrCwRMtNrxNDHxamgI52maHCRW

It wasn't "them" getting married, they were proxies for YeJun and her husband. And other than their work together as matchmakers, they didn't get to spend a lot of time building up a romance (there were a few moments for themselves only, but more was needed and so they'll take their time now).

It's pretty good - don't mind the ratings. Give it a try.

No love triangles, HEA for everybody.

I can't believe this. He was such a good actor - for something so insignificant and still unproven, for him to take his own life... it must've been brutal for him and his family.

SK society really needs to take a deep look in the mirror and ask itself: how much and how many more? This can't go on.

I really have no words.