Skibbies

Watched it raw on iqiyi. I love the set designs so much holy crap. This is also the first recent historical I've seen that doesn't use dubbing, damn, real indicator in everyone's acting ability (and accents :P)! The pacing is pretty good, first two episodes are ofc set up but there's a ton of stuff happening already, I think it might be slightly confusing at first tbh, but that's okay, I'm sure everyone was mildly confused and overwhelmed by sheer number of characters for NiF too.

The OTP's first meeting was different but it's a fun first meeting! so I quite like it. I expected the change since the drama focus is different, but I was quite dazzled by the book's opening )and first meeting) so I did want to see it. There are fair amount of difference as been indicated before but I think it kept core aspects pretty well? We'll see how it goes!

Good to hear about the pacing not being draggy!

Good god, why is this 60 episodes?? Isn't the novel pretty short? Can't we have nice and cute dramas at 20 or 30 ep? :c

Sorry I just saw this. I read it in Chinese unfortunately. I loved the book enough to buy it and briefly contemplated translating it, but I don't really trust my own translating skills and the level of commitment that'll require (with all of the epilogues, it's double the length of With You). Maybe a future project.

@Map_Linh: I know they changed supporting characters and the drama is actually male lead focused and haven't really looked into anything else. I think you can change a lot and still keep the soul of the story but it's very difficult and doubly so for historical. To be fair, a lot of the characters in the book were super OP so toning it done would be better.

@etcetera: I think the sequel is on Netflix for some mysterious reason and you can technically start with it. I always feel like I need to bring a history book or three to watch Qin Empire though so I don't know how it would go for you.

Nirvana in Fire is pretty darn hard to match, especially in the current cdrama world, what with strict restrictions of what can be filmed, a distinct lack of competent screenwriters (GOOD GOD so many good materials and actors and production ruined by plot), and the lack of patience to craft a good drama sjdfhsdjf bluh. The same production company has a historical coming out this year though? It's about the life of a girl but it's not epic. The novel is well regarded but I haven't read it. Also it's not the same director as NiF, but it's a different kind of story so eh. https://kisskh.at/23911-the-story-of-ming-lan

Have you tried The Qin Empire? or the Advisor's Alliance? Both are super serious historical though. They tend to be better quality but are usually incredibly hard to find subs for and have limited appeal to a lot of drama watchers. Lighter ones are lot more tricky since they'll fuck up the casting or the story usually, and broadcasting restriction can also make things terrible. I can only think of https://kisskh.at/23514-hua-jian-ti-hu-fang-da-chu but it's slice of lifey.

anyways. there's enough content in the book to fill all 70 episodes, so I hope they pace it well.

Watched this when I went on a 90s/early 00s school series binge. It was super cute! although I wished they cut down on the tropes a bit? The initial premise were already trope filled, then they added more, and more, I think the story and strong nostalgia would have stood out by itself.

I like the meta homages too! Both Joe Chen & Jerry Yan would have been huge part of the audience of this movie. The former being the female lead of top rated twdrama TWICE, Prince turn into Frog (2004) & Fated to Love You (2009) and later, Meteor Garden (2001) of course. The director is also the director of over half a dozen immensely popular twdrama. I think the theme song is sung by Hebe. who's part of SHE, also immensely in early 00s.

Above spoilers are pretty much correct except Wuji knew the sister wasn't her fiance. He outright called it off, but there were some excuse about how sister is sickly so they didn't want to announce it to the public (but everyone in the family knows), so sister just walks around claiming she's the fiance. If they see each other, Wuji kind of ignores her or show her courtesy but just some princess he knows.

I think he also finds out it's Fuyao because there were hints so he had suspicion. The backstory reveal comes not long after though.

YM got very lucky in her early cameos and first major roles, and she had a pretty good manager (and her own company now). Married with kids is a different image but is not harder to sell, especially as you get older. Sun Li (Zhen Huan Zhuan) and Liu Tao (Nirvana in Fire) are both married with kids. In fact, Liu Tao got explosive popularity twice (before she married in few dramas, most notably Tian Long Ba Bu 2003, and after she married with Nirvana in Fire).

It's a pretty humiliating implication though, it left an incredibly bad aftertaste for me. I rather they didn't use rape for drama and for you to care and cry for the character. (you can humiliate and powerplay without rape)

Common practice in cdrama. Historical are always dubbed, sometimes by the actors themselves. Contemporary varies, web dramas usually isn't dubbed. It has to do with wide range of accents that can take people out of a drama (especially historical. taiwanese and hk actors are almost always dubbed even in contemporary ones), not good enough acting from actors to say the lines with proper emotion, voice not fitting a particular character and noise pollution. The place where they film a lot of dramas are actually also a tourist spot and used by multiple teams, you can't air the drama just like that.

Looks like she was in Feng Qiu Huang dubbing Huo Xuan and Ze Tian Ji. I don't recognise the other works. I think they are all minor roles. She's part of a very popular/high profile dubbing group that dubs dramas (some roles) and anime (majority of the roles are from their gorup?).

happy ending. the novel had more of a chance for "tragic end" than the drama would tbh, because it had transmigration elements and the entire book was her trying to go home.

I think it's still 8 episodes for vip. it'll just be up to ep 20 instead of 16 like on TV.

Looks like it's 结爱·异客逢欢, I kind of doubt it has a translation though since it's not the a super popular book.

I didn't think it was possible to love the drama more, but reading the novel did make me love it more, despite the changes they made. It fully captured the essence of the novel and expanded it with its focus on the ensemble cast. Goddamn do I love these characters.

The first one is canon (to the drama and to the novel). There's two version because the latter was released first and let's just say it was received badly so they cut away the scene. (The director and production team actively kept tabs on Douban and posted there)

I get what you mean, especially since Yu Huai and Lin Yang are canonically friends in bookverse. (Zhou Mo in With You basically played what was suppose to be Lin Yang's role as a close friend who helps Yu Huan and he also compete with academically) The thing is, With You was written after My Huckleberry friends whereas the drama order is reverse. I digress.

It's probably just Yu Huai's actor Liu Hao Ran is too busy/expensive to do cameo on web dramas now after Nirvana in Fire II and presumably filming Novoland. Geng Geng (Tan Song Yun) cameo in a With You sequel movie that focus on Lu Xing He (it came out few months ago online) so idk what's up with her.

The characters are referenced, and more importantly, Xu Yan Liang, class 5's class monitor, the chubby guy shows up on multiple occasions. I think the schedule just didn't work out for the main characters to pop in as cameo, that or it's too expensive.

Not very much. There's what looks like one side crush for most of the drama, some light flirting between two other characters, but you get sort of romantic scenes between the two couple somewhere around episode 20. For the most part, the characters are friendly but not romantic towards each other. You can headcanon protective actions of characters but mhmm.