Nepeta 22

Ok, difference of opinion. It's fine. In my mind it's not exaggerated though. The get out clause was his poor old life, as if no one in this world suffers a similar fate as him. He ends up being grumpy, rude and obnoxious to those he simply don't like.

No problem at all. I respect others enjoyed it, and can see it's made many happy. For me, it's a frustrating watch. Which is why I aired my views.

The convenient "brain tumour" story was an excuse to have him soften up. Without that, the ML would be "out of character" to forgive him, that's why there is this storyline. Introverts don't need to resort to belittling, shaming or bullying the object of his desire. Luckily the poor FL saw that past, but she suffered immensely.

I get your point, but if it was the novel fans doing this, isn't it time drama makers quit doing adaptations? Most of the stuff are sub-par and needs modification on many productions and there is always the risk of these novel fans doing what they do. Having said all that, Douban has a system in place to weed out fake accounts. The viewership must not be too good to have novel readers swing the votes so easily. You write as if there is no passerbys voting.

Of course she is strong, or how else will she take on this case? This is a classic "band-aid" relationship built on her wanting to prove she can get him right. It's her project because of her upright upbringing. The mother is of course a classic tiger mom, but her father was very reasonable, but the ML still did not give his so-called girlfriend respect to her parents.

There is a saying, hurt people hurt people. That is the ML in a nutshell. Glamourising it just doesn't feel right or fair. This drama is etched in my mind as one of the few terrible pieces of entertainment painted as being serious with a dash or realism, which is why I feel strongly about its edit.

I get that, but the way it was filmed was trying to make it realistic looking. I don't mind jokey takes and that's normally helped with jaunty music. But none of that really happened in this drama. I find it sad that no one admits that his behaviour was bullying or belittling. Who cares if he's some special case and you're meant to give him a long leash for that? Is that supposed to be an excuse? I even saw some posters on the drama complaining the FL wasn't kind enough to him. The brainwashing has really got through...

I'm aware of that, but why use the struggle olympics to make it as light entertainment? Drama is there for sure, but I did not enjoy the belittling and constant bullying too-cool-for-school behaviour from the ML. This shouldn't be entertainment in my book.

I'm aware that sexual assault is common otherwise, why is there an item called "subway shirt" for sale for women? In real life, women need to protect themselves by modifying their attire.

Regards to harassment, stalkers and obsessive behaviours, again, very common from all classes and background the world over, but I object to these issues being put as filler content for a romance drama trying to look more interesting and grown up. Let's not dilute this into something more palatable and Disney-esk.

I feel this content is poor taste to be up against a romance tag. Nothing to do with a woman being happy. I think too many simplify this into some babyish fandom war in China. There has been numerous better received dramas that firmly puts women's happiness a lot higher than this attempt.

We will have to disagree then. I must be watching it so differently to you.

I have big issue with modern-day setting dramas that normalises certain behaviours that are very questionable in real life. He shames her into working excessive hours and makes fun of her in front of others. Showed no respect to her family when he already knew it meant a lot to her. The over arching message is someone who is hero worshipping someone who is a genius and he took full advantage of that.

Calling her a "princess" was originally a slur. To my mind, just because she accepted it and liked it later, you could say she is trying to prove to him she's not delicate. That's all, it's nothing romantic about that. The relationship is built on clashes and conflict. In real life that type of relationship normally ends in disaster.

I think that comment is a bit simplistic. A novel that really should have stayed that for those that pick to read it. But to make this material into a drama is bad taste. Even disgraceful.

How can you try to tag romance against a back-drop of harassment and abuse? It's a patch up job of using a serious subject matter as a foil for romance, and paving away the cracks through romance. There is nothing realistic with it. It's like a Disney version of how to deal with harassment and abuse.

BTW, the idea a partner is there like some shining knight to make all the past go away is giving shine to the ML and also limiting the true story of many victims that go on for life with trauma with or without a partner, and a portion even commit suicide even when in a relationship or married after years have passed.

I really don't think the scores are as simple as what you said.

I want to say that Lighter & Princess is a drama that glamorises toxic bullying behaviour. Enter with caution. The ML is a total bully and has shamed and bullied the FL throughout. She, like a classic upper middle class girl thinks she can "tame" the ML. It's the tropey "band aid" relationship.

When I say glamorise, I mean, a drama that hand picks 1 single relationship that would work when in actual fact, it's brainwashing a generation of young females into thinking it's a project worth pursuing.

Statistic-wise, these partners are controlling and end with violence in reality. This drama sends a very misleading and even dangerous message out making a portion of watchers think it's normal. It is normalising toxic behaviour to the point of making the FL abandon everything, including her family.

Have you tried Follow Your Heart? It's lighthearted with plenty of good comedy with 1 main couple and 2 side couples which all worked in my opinion.

Yes, I recommend Follow Your Heart if you like comedy done well. And I have to add, it was great to see Cheng Lei in comedy, he really is good! ML's mother is one of the best. Snooty but also afraid of being killed every 2 minutes. Brother and sister jealousy done in a tongue-in-cheek way. Definitely poking fun at some of the common c-dramaland tropes...

Yes I hope so too with regards to the cast. I came here specifically for at least 4 of the cast members because of what I saw of their past works and I was not disappointed. They all did well if not exceeded my expectations, so hopefully they get more recognition and roles.

As for the drama, yes it does subtly pokes fun at the many common tropes, and it's done in a very careful way by not stabbing itself in the foot. It works because it's not meant to be taken so seriously.

Yes, I know what you mean in the mannerisms 😅

I agree. This one is up there with Follow your Heart's royal family. I loved them all there too. It's nice to see a more normal functioning family.

That's exactly the issue, without huge fan bases, the ratings tend to be more like this. Having said that, maybe the bar has shifted so much that 7.9 type rating is now considered so and so, but the truth is, the inflation of some of the bigger fan-based dramas have made the ratings shift higher up causing dramas like this to look like they're far inferior when in reality they are not.

It's sad that C-dramas are getting more and more like this causing future projects to reject many decent actors in leads or high support roles. I hope change will be around the corner.

Interesting comments. I can't see it. But character-wise yes similar to Flourished Peony character. Someone I know also watching this says he looks like Hui Yutian! I can't say I see it, he looks more like Deng Lun to me.

Just an update that the Douban ratings has slowly risen to 6.9 now.

It's a drama loosely around a production team that produces shows to showcase Chinese heritage. So there will be drama from the production team to experts and hosts. Within that drama, they dedicate around 2-3 episodes to each show and within that you will be treated to historic methods, from clothing, hair pieces to artwork like pottery etc. It's this bit which is a bit like a documentary which is the most interesting.

The bits surrounding the production team to me was not good and let the drama down. The FL was a bit too hyperactive and her mentor's storyline was not interesting. The host and the director's storyline also fell flat for me. What I did like was what the production office workers wore to work, that was nice. If this is interesting to you, then go ahead.