Nepeta 22

OK, I can see you are very invested and I hope the adaptation will work out fine. As for Keira Knightly and Darcy's dance, I can't remember this, it seemed a long time ago to me...😉

I was more saying the story is no longer that unique so if they don't adapt it with more twists it may just look run-of-the-mill stuff. Court stuff, revenge plots and rebirth are very popular themes in the last year or so. Even if this had a big original following, the format today, may be regarded dated and unoriginal. It would need some updating.

If you look at The Legend of the Female General. The adaptation was changed but causing plot hole issues and changing her family dynamics. The FL's character was all over the place because they were trying to make her appeal to the new audience but that alienated the novel readers because they dumbed her down in front of the ML.

No problem. I am not really concerned on how they adapt it. I was just pointing out it's not as simple as women hating by another poster. Those are a bit extreme to be honest. It was more about them getting worried it would shift away from FL's story and instead flesh out the ML's story instead.

I feel the drama has been left on the shelf for too long and since then so many revenge variations have come and gone in that time and this story could even be stale if they don't handle it properly. Some stories are best left in its original form for their original target audience. Adapting to a wider audience can be a double edge sword. The passerbys will pick apart the flaws that fandom are sometimes blind to. I have seen that a lot.

The female lead roles are sometimes watered down ironically because the production feels they are trying to accommodate the largely female audience. If you choose money/profit first, it ends up finding its level.

You have to remember, it is largely hormonal driven, so being more simplistic and shallow, the fandom want to see their "men" perform (the fantasy) for them. I don't think it's because the male stars are fantasising about the adulation and prefer to keep quiet. Very often, the people and management around them control the narrative.

Yes, the odd few have been more vocal and speaking up, but I think you see more males stars stay silent because there's simply a higher portion of male idol stars in ratio to female equivalent. Again. This is market driven. Higher female audience & fandom.

I think a section of potential viewers are concerned that editing the story can turn scenes more on ML and centre the story more around him. Now I don't know if this will happen here. I did see some accuse Yin Tao's past works such as Destined do that to focus on male character over FL.

I guess what I'm saying is shift the core focus onto ML, being overly hero-like, giving him more grander highlights, special music and slo- mo intro. Then in later episodes over-flesh out more scenes and storylines that were not inside the novel. That sort of thing. The story is more about him, but keep the title of drama the same.

And there lies the problem. The production and film industry too as you noticed are secretly fine because it cuts both ways and this is where I see the main issue of the market will find its level.

Money as usual is the driver and the priority which if sustained this way for so long will create a system where dramas and films are no longer generally created by creators that want to expose their work and vision to a wider audience, but an industry that was traditionally rooted in creativity, now dominated by content rooted in visuals and stardom over story. Dramas are churned out monotonously for quick spikes and then quickly forgotten. More a tribute/fan service.

Personally, I feel you have got it wrong. It is not the male stars that are diva-rish, it is their "mainy female fandom" doing the bullying, rallying of trying to demand a change in scripts and screentime. I have seen very disrespectful comments made to the director and production team. Claims that they are the ones propping up the drama and without them, the drama cannot even get off on the road!

Sometimes the star has to come out every now and then to say "trust me", "trust my choices" like what we saw with Zhang Ling He. I believe it is the embarrassing and problematic fandom that often crosses the line. I have heard certain support actors had been taken off due to pressures from the star's fandom. It's just another day in the world of idol dramas. Full of drama than the actual drama itself!

Regarding your last paragraph, why is that? Are these mainly female fans?

It's as if these boys are their sons. They behave like their embarrassing mothers at the school gates. Not very sisterly at all if you ask me. And also that social hierarchy based rank is so dated & ignorant.

Research on this era is sometimes problematic because many of the literature that's written in English have their political slant, especially during that period. You will most likely read it from those that have a political agenda. You will need to get it from all sources and speaking to those that lived through it.

For a gentle touch into the 1960s, I do recommend you watch the second arc of Footprints of Change (Chinese dramas). There you will see laid bare, the paranoia, suspicion and the big shift from old traditions into the early days of what new China was supposed to be. In the 1970s, the families had strict rationing and often shops can go days to weeks with no supplies due to the demands for certain food items.

I meant a large portion of the Chinese population were still living in rural areas where higher education is out of reach. Perhaps the term well-to-do makes it seem like they're rich. In China standards, they would be the luckier ones. That's what I meant. And they would still be scrimping to get by.

There is also an element of luck because for many families. Those who were born into an area that had fast development reaped the benefits quickly whilst others not from those areas, they needed to uproot from rural or underdeveloped areas which were traditionally from farming villages into the bigger cities for work & better education options. That's what I meant.

I'm not following this drama but can see from the blurb it would be focussing on the more well-to-do groups which make up a very small portion of the population at the time in the drama.

Most were still on outskirts in a rural/farming community. Those that move into cities for work or were lucky enough to live amongst a regeneration area would be a focus for these sorts of dramas. So as you say, the drama is following the more privileged few.

Good to hear. I'm sure as more watch it, especially in the last arc, the scores may climb. Such a beautiful yet tragic story.

Clearly not risky when they decided on adapting Three Body. If you've watched the second era of Footprints of Change, you will start to see change. Time has passed and some writers are incorporating the 1960s and the subject you raised into the story. This is not really a niche drama but a mainstream drama with some idol actors.

Get ready, 2 dramas with Zhou Ye will be set in retro times. One featuring ballet set in the seventies!

Yes. More than just good. It's a great drama. It's been accused of being preachy in China, but as far as I see, why can't someone talk or make a drama about these subjects? They are important & asks more questions than giving us an outright answer.

Well done. I hope it gets higher because I think it's better than that rating. By far one of the best dramas this year.

I get what you are saying, and BTW I have edited my previous comment to let you know it's not about this drama but another drama called Romance in the Alley in my last comment. This drama will focus on love and you could say it's going to be light hearted rom-com with a retro feel. Nothing wrong with that. When Bridget Jones Diaries was adapted into film it does not depict real life Britain but no one questions that because it's not a political drama just like this one due out.

China has many types of dramas and self critique have been happening for a while, and dramas like The Knock Out or The Long Night depicts corrupt officials at all levels. A drama I'm watching right now called Born to be Alive is not shying away from the fact that the government neglected police forces in areas that are not deemed important enough and shows in graphic detail how they don't have proper equipment and despite numerous pleas, money is never poured into that area's police force. But you can't expect the current ruling party to say they do not think they should exist. But certainly there is criticism of their past failures. I don't find that at all odd.

I find it more offensive when a majority of dramas from former coloniser countries choosing to always put a 'white knight' at the centre of the story just to hand pick less than 1% of what actually happened at that part of history. The self censoring film & dramas. Backers and the industry blacklisting certain artists/film directors that voice their political views.

In China, their history, especially the last 100 year history is a relatively new system. so in a sense there is still a whole generation of collective pride that perhaps a fair few countries don't share, so when they come to C-Drama, they can find it too heavy handed or sometimes jarring.

But if you feel that is a form of propaganda then so be it. History is always written by the victors, so nothing new here. For those in China, they are far from blind or too innocent to know true freedom, and the type you mention is more a label like "special values" than anything actually meaningful in every day life. It's more talk and thoughts rather than true actions to bring people freedom.

I can tell you did not watch a drama like Romance in the Alley. It shows clearly the suffering, the rationing, the dobbing of others including within their own family for personal gain. It also tackled forced relationships to gain access to housing which at the time was strictly controlled by family links and which county you were born. It also showed how little people had in terms food and how many were forced to grow upwards from seeds they got from their own vegetables.

What I find so interesting is when it comes to China it's propaganda but elsewhere it's just individuals choosing to shed light on patriotic subjects. Ironically, you might want to question who's really swallowed the Kool aid with your own comments.

That might be so from the perspective outside of China. If you've watched Romance in the Alley, then you will see that this drama epitomises nostalgia to the max. There is a core audience that would view this era as strong characters that built China as it is today. Almost like a tribute. So why not use love as the universal language.

No problem. It's actually still common in Chinese dramas. Normally it's done because sometimes the actors themselves are too busy in their schedule so they cannot attend later dubbing in a studio so they then have other voice actors in place.

Other times, the production prefer a particular type of voice. The other final reason is their regional accents may be an issue for the drama, particularly historical type dramas and production will need to take on voice actors.