Skibbies

Xuanzong would be a revered liked his great grandpa Taizong if he died earlier and all that later stuff didn't happen :P

The Wu brothers are cousins, should be first cousins, but I can't bet on it. Historically Wu Sansi and Wu Chengsi were first cousins.

Historically Princess Taiping and Wu Youji were second cousins (his grandpa was Wu Zetian's uncle), her other husband was a first cousin from dad's side.

Technically you could say Li Longji is a "bad guy" since he collaborated with his aunt princess Taiping to overthrow Empress Wei + Emperor Li Xian so his dad Li Dan could ascended the throne, Li Dan abdicated 2 years later to Li Longji.

I thought Wu Shenxing was Wu Sansi lol, because there was that weird scene of Huan Xiang and Wu Shenxing together. I can't tell Wu Sansi and Wu Chengsi apart though from their achievements.

First time I saw Wu Youjue, I thought of Wu Youji 武攸暨, the guy Princess Taiping married.

it's the younger generation that likes it because they grew up with it (feature has been around for 10 years for bilibili), and it helps to make shows more interesting, if you don't so and so character or find a plot development outrageous, or just the show is boring but your bias is in it so you are giving it more of a chance.

The feature doesn't work as well in english because there's too many letters in a sentence for english, chinese (and japanese) is lot shorter. you can adjust how opaque the comments are and how much they cover the screen etc, it's generally more suitable for a lighter series, or a familiar childhood show where you feel like bunch of people are watching it with you.

Most of the sites' comments aren't that interesting, some are outright rude or annoying, bilibili's probably the best, sometimes people do mini explanation notes on adaptation choices (commonly LN -> anime) and what not. People might turn on the comments second time they watch the episodes, but fair amount of people say they can't watch stuff without the comments LOL (cnetizens are much harsher on cdramas in general)

The ratings have been releasing fairly slowly recently, but I thought it was cos they were all horrible lol.

Douban doesn't actually have that rule, Palace of Devotion specifically had its rating released too early, I think on second day? (there were paid reviewers from bigger douban users if the rumours were correct) and it started out as 5 or something, which pissed off its users and it tanked. There are also dramas that clearly held off its rating from releasing so it doesn't tank its viewcounts/deter future viewers (dramas that should have large amount of ratings not releasing score even as it's more than half way through), but plenty of dramas that gets watched have horrible ratings regardless for various reasons. There are dramas that's suspected of locking the ratings as well (ratings usually fluctuate, it's extremely suspicious if the % stay the same even as it gets popular).

All that said, I still find it more useful than not. I actually started using it for its harsh ratings + telling if there's plagiarism issue lol.

to be fair, cao dun would have made this 78 ep long and i'd fall asleep every episode even though he's a very good director. i just don't want to see any more action scenes from this director in forseeable future.

thanks :)

hey could you tell me where you found the movie?

I'm super late, but if the reviewer is who I think it is, she's the type that tends to hype stuff she really likes. I have very different taste from her, and she's generally very critical, so I actually mostly like her when we share opinion on the same drama, not use her as a guide lol.

As for people rating this high, it's literally this is cliche but it's addictive, and that's what certain people look for in a drama. I read cnet regularly and they are much more critical, there are lot of people that freely admit this is super old school, and the plot is cringey but they can't stop watching. It sounds like you look for something more, it's best to just drop it. I passed on this even though I like Wang Ziqi, because the tropes sound like they'll drive me crazy.

Hey i'm late, but just want to chime in my favourites of his are actually his earlier works, the underrated ensemble coming of age drama My Huckleberry Friends and ensemble adventure historical drama Young Blood.

Skate into Love, a popular romcom with splash of winter sports, and Go Ahead (note, he's the SML here), a family drama are both popular, but I personally had minor issues with those stories, they are definitely still worth watching though.

Recently aired Justice had very interesting premise that was executed pretty clumsily (it was filmed just before this drama if you see familiar faces). Symphony Romance was based on popular manga that had successful anime/jdrama/kdrama adaptations, classical music or just music itself is very rare focus for cdramas so I watched it. They toned down the quirkiness of characters to make it fit more, it was interesting experiment, but I personally didn't find the music as exciting as it should be (pieces they choose or directing etc). Do give them a try if the topic of the dramas interest you though.

Late but TV version have 42 ep because some of the episodes are 20mins and lot of the latter ones are 30ish minutes. The content should be the same, actually the 41 ep ver probably have few more frames.

I'm extremely late, but I thought I might chime in. Unrequited Love was serialised first, but finished last. then My Huckleberry Friends then With You. MHF end up being published first. With You's novel had endings for Unrequited Love and MHF's otp due to time skip (Yu Huai were flatmates with Lin Yang and Zhou Zhou during time skip in the novel).

Zhou Mo is a drama original character, he replaces Lin Yang in the novel. In the novel, it's Lin Yang who's the gifted genius that Yu Huai constantly compares himself to. As for why Zhou Mo and others could do cameos, cos they could get them to return, but not the main cast basically. Lu Xinghe is also completely drama original character, and don't you feel like he's kind of not related to anyone except Geng Geng? They didn't include Lin Yang probably because they had plans to adapt the other novels, but wasn't sure if With You would be successful (web dramas was still pretty new in 2016), Lin Yang was casted last for this drama, and that's like a year after With You had already aired.

As for Yu Zhouzhou and Yu Huai being relatives, it's essentially cos they shared the same last name, the author thought it'd be hilarious to include that tidbit. Lin Yang appeared at first as cameo, but the readers + author really liked having him around, and he was interesting foil to Yu Huai so he end up having lot more scenes. There's actually another otp that's in the same year as them. The author finally published the book this year, after let me see, 10 years? lol.

there are two. one is 52mins long, one is 46mins, they are basically like deleted scenes, so there's all these segments of different scenes.

ode to joy is probably most similar to this, I found this far more down to earth and hit closer to home though. Rational life might work too, but it's bit more idealistic.

I definitely expected a Huang take down at the very minimum, considering the amount of time Feng shows up, I expected he'd play bigger role too, especially when he's essentially representative of KMT. It's like they cut an arc at the end? Huang Ruhong just fizzled out as an antagonist which was super weird.

Excellent review as always. I really wish this drama was better written and edited, since I liked the business angle of republican era quite a bit, I don't think I've ever seen one? I was somewhat surprised they didn't actually milk the second Sino-Japanese war more as they normally would, I think if they wrapped up the ending more, I'd probably love the second half as a whole.

It's the drama's fault for such a floppy first half LOL.

I find the FL fairly clear headed and there is little bit of discussion about the overwhelming amount of fame and money they get, as well as ML struggling between money or dream, I think it's little surface-y discussion, but it IS there so there's more substance than one might expect, and why some people say the drama is about mature relationship. The drama definitely focus more on ML's job/aerospace engineering than FL's job/entertainment stuff, although I guess the gaming bit count as her job, but lot of people didn't like it mhm.