Skibbies

I sort of get all Ni ni news really fast from my drama watching group, this drama had an awesome supporting cast in addition to nice cameo cast, it's fun.

hahaha you didn't know? pleasant surprise :D

I think both Pei Zhi have obsessive streak tbh.

The letter was hidden behind the wall of equation in the lighthouse.

the letter was written by a mother, from the sounds of it, likely Qiu Yue.

his agency is actually well known, but it's more known for signing singers (it's the one Li Yuchun and such sign up after contests in 00s and early 10s), resources-wise, they get mango tv productions, which is lower budget but have higher chance to air on tv (hunan tv specifically). skate into love's producer was fairly well known after ashes of love and he had connections with Jiangsu TV, and huace is a big company. Overall it's not as bad as you think, resources-wise.

Yeah that's the one I'm thinking of, it's 7.3 on douban.

hahaha that's a good idea. Palace of Desire isn't heavy on politics but it's peculiar so idk if it'd work for you or your parents XD I need to get around to 2001's Smiling Proud Wanderer too, but with wuxia I feel like besides Zhang Jizhong's, I mostly need to watch/re-watch the hk versions rather than c versions.

that's hilariously unbelievable.

the rapid rising in such a short time is really questionable, I wish they kept it at 8.3.

Han Wu Da Di? No that's like 60 ep. Wait no must be 楚汉传奇, the ratings for all the dramas around this period have been so so (oh it's 7 now!) so I think I passed on it. Maybe I should watch it too mhmm, cos I'm really fuzzy about it tbh.

lol, well I watched Yongzheng dynasty when I was like 8 or something, and its op was how I learnt the emperors. It just so happen that and couple other limited c-historical I watched were classics XD I started rewatching them cos I started watching Qin Empire actually (which my mum recommended), and I was like.....time to learn history through rewatching classic dramas and wiki cos who have time for books!

Oh oh! On top of Ming Dynasty 1566 having subs on youtube now (fully subbed), I believe Palace of Desire 大明宫词, the weird shakespearan-like drama about Princess Taiping is being subbed too, slowly.

I actually end up liking Cao Rui okay, but he really shouldn't last so many ep, it's one of those "check every ep to see if he dies" people. My RoTK buff brother legit doesn't remember this dude LOL Everyone remembers him as "Cao Pi's son". Oh yeah that's a good idea :) Always leave something for a rainy day. I have to get around to rewatching Yongzheng Dynasty someday. I didn't know Qin 1 and 3 is on netflix now, finally, after like idk 5 years?

I think you can just do one for both? Provided you don't finish second half years later XD I'd only separate the two cos I don't really care for large chunks of second half haha. Oh oh yeah Qin Empire 2's last two ep is throne ascension, there's a bit about his older son dies cos he went to lift a ding 鼎 (true history), so his other son succeeds and you see bit of empress dowager Mi? I think Qin Empire 3 starts with those two ep too so technically you can skip it I guess?

I was waiting for more ep to release for Day Breaker, but then I went off to read novels instead and this dropped so oops. Ordinary Greatness looks like it has some anger inducing citizens haha. Why is your Qin Empire 2 on second last ep and AA on last ep? XD are you just procrastinating from writing reviews? XD

I do think it gets better as the drama goes and the plot is probably at its best near the end, but I don't think it's must watch. Oh Zhang tao (Hunter's Hao Xiaoqiang and Under the Skin's Lu Haizhou, the new dude that came out near the end and kept Du Cheng from working) plays a hilarious over the top villain in it, which is fun.

Finally a tencent S+ that seem to have mostly positive feedback domestically too lol :P I was considering Day Breaker and Ordinary Greatness too, ahh.

Oh no, that's awful. Don't worry though, there's batch of dramas coming up for June to ramp up for summer I think.

Strange Things is...okay, the set up is interesting, and technically the plot is kind of neat, but I don't really care about most of the characters? I've watched this semi indie (they started out indie) team's Moral Peanuts before and I liked that more. That one also tend to foreshadow and plot twist a lot, but its cases was one or two ep/case in the beginning so it felt lot faster, this one was 3? minimum I think. I have a friend that likes it a lot. Oh and the drama was filmed in 2016 , I don't think it feels dated but friend mention it feels 00s to them lol.

the second ML have since aired multiple dramas (including on prime time tv slot) with face switching so it's not him.....

Wang Juan really have little control over who they cast as the leads and he can't exactly give as much scenes to FL as ML due to the source novel. He added significant amount of scenes for FL in both SSS and JoL already (I've read the parts the drama covers for both). A more sound comparison for his ML and FL are his original works, of which I think only Young Blood is translated.

It's strange to compare this to that tbh, because this one's source is FL centric, the ML legit didn't exist (?), both JoL and SSS's source novel are ML centric.

How are you juggling so many dramas!! hahaha. I have to finish Record of Strange Things before starting this.

On that ending, it had more impact in the novel IMO. HFX personally cultivated the flower, he excelled and is known for cultivating flower, but it's one of his more romantic gestures, where he did this show his love towards BFX. HFX was much more ambitious and ruthless in the novel (BFX have good reasons to distrust him in early part of the drama, cos the lines are straight from the novel), he genuinely wants to unify the states and rule because he can do a fabulous job. It's BFX and YWY who don't really care who rules, as long as regular people are at peace and well fed. The drama glossed over BFX's desire to be free vs she HAS to become the Queen because that's how she can protect her people. So when he gave up his life + flower that symbolise his love/their reunion to ensure BFX is alive, then gave up his life's work, it worked a lot more.

He actually aged several decades, not just turned his hair white, and I think he had like a month to live. BFX was in disbelief that someone that was so prim and proper and cared a lot about appearance would give it up to her. BFX have a brother figure who have special blood, that basically could transfuse life force into someone else, so he saved HFX for indefinite amount of time. You can take that ending as the drama ending :P

WRTW's source novel was serialised in 2005 or 2006, the alleged plagierised drama's source novel was serialised 2008 till 2013, so it's unrelated to the novels. The scenes were specifically added to Royal Nirvana's drama by its scriptwriters (the novel doesn't cover that part, the novel starts after it's over and done with, when the drama is like half way through lol), WRTW's have some questionable line to line copying, and more importantly, his family background doesn't quite fit his characterisation.

Both ML's detail family struggle and tianshuang sect were drama original, and I think where the drama fails. The novel have fair amount of issues (everyone are really op and it's pretty mary sue) + not particularly suited for adaptations (the romance is hilariously minimal, there's more outright romance-y bits with side characters than the main otp, because they both have more important things to worry about and they distrust each other, for really good reason but still), but it mostly make sense by itself. I'm very used to changes when it comes to adaptations, hell I'm super lenient towards it, but I really wish scriptwriters could fuse their own plot + original struture/characterisations better yknow?

I have little issue with more focused on ML, but it could be -> family issue -> he goes to other places (with FL) to prove himself or whatever -> gather army in secret and train -> maybe intro FL's family bit earlier -> more yong zhou court stuff, it'd feel less repetitive and lopsided. I want my badass FL to actually have balanced screen time, but if you can't even give that to me, at least make the ML story better. The novel doesn't cover otp's jianghu adventures (it starts the same way drama starts), that's a huge gap you could fill in. Alas.

In the novel, the focus is definitely on the main four state, one of the them fall too early for there to be much focus (it's at war around the time when YWY first show up). The other fall quickly too, and it does get small bit of focus, Bai Langhua in the novel is princess of that state, so you see from her eyes how her country come to ruins and she suffers quite a bit. She hates the leads for very good reasons but she also envy they can do anything they want and they can protect their countries etc, I actually really like her and was super happy to see she's loved in the drama version but then scriptwriters came in and everything was terrible. Youzhou doesn't seem to get enough focus in the drama, but in the novel the war covers about half the story, and the battles last longer, so it does get decent amount of focus. There are more screen time for the barely shown generals of BFX and Huang Chao, I actually really like all the generals.