Nepeta 22

I think this might burst your bubble, as explained, this is not a Wuxia but a Xianxia, so I'd say there will be even more 'over-the-top' editing going on post production. Be prepared for blue flowered plants and purple maroon skies. It's the Chinese version of their pixies and fairies.

How many episodes have you watched? I've watched 2 episodes and this Deng Kai's portrayal of a villain is so two dimensional and irritating. It's making me find it hard to carry on. Do you know who is Dun Tian? In the synopsis, it mentions this name and I cannot see them on the cast list. I sincerely hope it's not played by Deng Kai as that will be a disaster. He is over acting with his basic glaring stares. He is like some cartoon skit.

Ancient Love Poetry was too padded and filler most of its episodes, and was not good at all. There were too many filler characters and convoluted conflicts that go round and round and have very long predictable endings. Seeing it's 40 episodes here, there must be a lot of story to cover but hope they're not fillers with side characters that don't tie up with the main plot.

You need to put this type of comment in spoiler please.

Have you read the novel? Anyone know who is Dun Tian? I can't see this name on the cast list. So far, the drama seems quite juvenile. Like a cartoon for kids. The villain characters seems to be easily led and on angry mode all day. I just hope this Dun Tian isn't the character that is played by Deng Kai. He's so irritating.

Deng Kai is making me close to dropping this. Just watched 2 episodes...his over-the-top acting and mad glaring is jarring. In the synopsis, it mentions a Dun Tian, I sincerely hope there will be a better villain other than this stock two dimensional villain that always look silly and two steps behind.

If you can't remember when you stopped, I'll say try from episode 3. For me, the drama was good from beginning to the end. Every character was not filler like some other Xianxia dramas. I seldom watch Xianxias, and I'm glad I picked this one. It is much more pared down with a smaller but well casted set of actors, which I think helps to keep this story much more focused.

Apologies, that was a clumsy comment. You are right, it's not meant as western audiences, but global audiences.

Thanks! Sounds for the domestic audience then! The international audiences will need to shut off part of their brains.😂

I have not gone back to see what sort of comments were made but I'm not against people shipping characters. Maybe they are from the original book readers? Those purists?

I agree about the massive toxic MLs that seems to be all en-vogue for now. Storyline styles go around in circles and then move on. I hope there will be some change for that too. Regarding ML toxic characters, there has been a slight change towards seeing more stronger FLs recently. I just finished The Blossoming Love which was a very refreshing story. FL's one arc was almost similar to A Journey to Love which was a success.

Thanks for letting me know it's tame. I might join to watch as I'm a little nervous watching these types of dramas.

Sorry if I assumed you were comparing to other countries, my bad. However, this so called BL line needs to be cross-checked with the original source material. If it was not there, then the makers of this drama is queer baiting for cheap gains for the drama. That's low.

BL popularity in China was stopped, not because of intolerance towards it, but it was due to some drama makers using it as a quick short-cut to gain viewers and often storylines were poor and had no artistic value. It was inserted in just to gain more female fandom through these BL crowds.

Take a look around the current crop of big male stars today, they gained their fame through being in BL dramas. I support this. as it was impacting the quality of dramas through 2017 to 2022.

I cannot comment as I have not watched this drama yet. However your comments are very fitting to what I wrote. They are like that because of their political backgrounds.

Japan and S.Korea are (on the face of it)allies and friendly to each other. China has had some very sticky relationships with Japan and S.Korea, and I will not go into details on this forum, but if you like to over-look these very obvious things, then that's fine, but my comments addressed them including other Asian nations in the area.

Your views are very typical of the mindset that's being brought up in countries outside of China. I remind you that this drama is not aimed for international audiences. You are just peeking into a domestic drama?

The Chinese audiences will have a far different history and background to your viewpoint. Just a little insight. But yes, your opinions here are valid too.

I haven't watched any of it yet, and yes I know it's romance first and war second, which is why I have delayed watching! I just thought the original poster might want to hear my perspective.

I often see similar reactions in other dramas. It's almost always levelled at China, (western media doing a good job on the propaganda front), and I too was a bit like that in my early days of watching C-Dramas, and see this as a sort of entitled culture clash.

In the end, I realised, some of us might just be expecting the world to cater to our own needs, expectations and worse still, culture. That's when I realised, this is so entitled and not open minded at all. I hope more viewers will realise some of these comments stem from that, and also lack of understanding the countries' history when watching their dramas/films. I think it's always useful to learn more on their history and background as that often spills into their films/dramas.

You are right. The general tone is, if you like our stuff, come to us. They have a growing entertainment circuit that thrives to the point that domestic audiences have little to no appetite for international stars. Many foreign made films are not making much dent on their domestic audiences either and the gap has been filled the last 4 years.

I have seen many international audiences opening Weibo accounts increasing due to this, even against a backdrop of anti China propaganda campaign going on for decades. It's through film and music, people will eventually seek stuff from China. That is why China doesn't need to seek western approval for their dramas/films.

The problem with your comments are a little mis understood. Reality is in Japan & South Korea, do they recognise same sex marriages/unions? Also, it is illegal to have same sexual relationships in the South Korean army. In Britain this was only legal from 2000.

This does not mean it doesn't happen and if the drama portrays this in a subtle way, then that's progress, although I'm inclined to think this is an antennae for the BL crowd that are aimed primarily at the female audiences and nothing to do with how some term it as LGBT. Often misunderstood by some international fandoms.

You are parroting western media's propaganda (a hypocritical one) of China when many countries around the world are very much intolerant. China is not some intolerant country towards LGBT, but like many countries around the world, it's a minority group and often not represented very well.

I'm not watching this at the moment yet, but I want to say that some of this might be rooted in China's history. They are unlike many of the nations you are getting your dramas from. Former colonisers trying to move on from their past or countries that are under governments that pander to the great western nations.

China's recent history is of big change and of course a revolution. Being a big nation, this kept them for decades in a big group mentality to make it all work. There was very little time for the type of thinking you have, that's rooted in individualism. That affects how dramas are made when it involves war. In dramas outside of China, It's subtle and almost apologetic in some sense but be sure it's still the same message, but it's re-sold through names like Rambo.

In China, over time, it forms part of a bigger picture and a collective. This trickles down into all walks of life in China. They have every right to feel proud and heroic. They don't have all the baggage of being colonised or under any form of pact or control with other nations with a strong moral code. You are just witnessing their emotional state after big trauma, and in a sense it's a bit apt considering this drama.

She's photo bombed Nadina Domestica (Heavenly Bamboo) which is the most interesting one.

Yes, I can see... With her playing this character, I sense a bit of pity for her, because after all, she has been spoilt for too long by her family, a product of the system. Her love for SML is pure in her mind and she's unable to accept he's moved on.

Zhang Yaqin can never be annoying to me. I am feeling something more will happen to her character. I sincerely hope her character will have more dimension and not stay like some 2 dimensional character.

Where's my insult to you? In your last post to me, you said "holy opinion", I didn't take that as an insult lol.

Play the victim. But it's not going to change people into thinking like you.

It was nice talking to you. I hope you have a lovely day.