Nepeta 22

My personal take on this is it's due to capital. I haven't seen so much product placement in a long time. It's clear that TJC's profile has changed in China since the first season, and I cannot help think that the dynamics now show in how his character has changed quite dramatically. Du Cheng has a more back-seat type of role, and this is not what it was like in season 1.

I appreciate others saying he was trained in this and in that, but we never really got to see all that. Suddenly, he's some deep psychologist, able to draw carbon copies of likeness from skulls, see past characters that other police officers cannot see. I feel this is way too much. Coupled with Du Cheng made to be a stubborn and killjoy type of a cop. I know he'll save Shen Yi's character, but it feels uncomfortable to watch.

I think the comedy you describe is this attempt to be awkward and conscious type of funny. It's done in a way for an audience but not inside the drama itself. It's sometimes seen more in reality shows which maybe the director has been influenced by. After all, China is filled with these types of shows. It's hard to mimic this type of comedy inside a drama setting.

Here, it unsettles the drama and the dramatic style ends up more slapstick which is quite dated and looks out of place when acted out using young actors.

The problem is the over usage of jaunty music to steer us on when we should laugh. This can be jarring when the whole drama is some long drawn out music video in general. I get GJM wanted to break boundaries with music but in this case I think music was over used.

Just post what you need to on the drama, as long as it's respectful to others and we can all have an open discussion on what works and what doesn't work. Gate-keeping on forums is becoming more common because I fear it's tipped too much the other way because of some past discussions that may have descended into insults. Keep insults out and hopefully debate and discussions can flow peacefully.

Personally, it's Ying Lei's character that is the stand out even without the director's help. He was one that sacrificed the most along with his father. He was the one with the natural comedic timing and moments. Bai Jiu was second. It's classic that the director would choose these 2 characters to have the sad ending. Was it conscious or just his disrespect to these 2 characters?

I was more annoyed by that. No shade to ML and FL characters nor second ML character, but it felt really elitist and even without the confines of royalty it mimicked all the unfairness of some invisible class system.

When you pander to the fandom as clearly GJM did, it's unashamedly fanservice, it affects the true artistic control. Some will disagree with me on this, but I felt this happened on this drama. It has to stop because there needs to be a clear line between directors/script writers and demanding fandoms that often pester them on their Weibo pages with relentless demands on their faves.

No annoying bad guys here. The story is more about friendship, bonding and conflicting interest. The good and the pious are young and idealistic, and it's their journey into realising demons are not all that bad. The main lead is just that person. They embark on an emotional journey that takes them through many characters to build up for the pending sacrifice.

This is punctuated with strange comedy that some might find funny, but for me, very odd and did nothing but distracted the flow. It's these over-the-top comedic moments that made the young cast look awkward. Others had no issue, but I did. This is one of the downsides to the drama. There are long drawn out dramatic scenes that was filled with slow motion speech and movement. I watched on double speed and that still dragged on.

Pacing is an issue. The build up is so long and drawn out, with endless tears that after a while, had no more meaning because it was repeated again and again using different characters on the same format and formula. But give it a try, you might have a different view.

On the romance front. it's a subtle love and longing. If you like that sort of thing where small gestures and stolen glances with knowing smirks, this is for you.

For a Xianxia, maybe check out Ancient Love Poetry if you haven't seen it yet. This will help for the pending Bai Lu drama Moonlight Mystic.

For a good angsty and one of the best under-appreciated drama, Love in Between. You really will need a box of tissues for that one.

Sorry if you felt those words seemed extreme. I meant from the beginning, the story teller practically said he has to not exist in order for the mission to be complete. It's a classic storyline...MC cannot be alive or live with the ones he dearly loves. Catch-22. If he stayed existing, it would not be compatible with a good ending for the mortals.

Classically, it's the mortals that edges it, just. Whether that is a demon (even how good) or half demon. That is why I say the good die young leaving behind those that spent much of their lives preaching being pious and righteous - end up having a long life. This is how it ended. Safe and dare I say, quite disappointing. GJM fell back into tropey endings.

Don't get me wrong, I came to watch this drama mainly because this director's last drama, and although there were some pacing issues there, I like it and unlike others, actually liked the ending.

Unfortunately for me, I somehow expected something similar with plot twists. Instead, saw strange stilted humour that made the younger cast members look awkward and there seemed to be next to no plot twist.

Pretty much early on, he was building the story line up for the epic death/sad scenes. That build up was tiring and dated. Perhaps I had high hopes and actually dragged myself on, hoping I was wrong. I felt a sort of anti-climax in the end. I know a fair few dramas are sub-par in C-Dramaland, and most days, I steer clear of stuff like Lost you forever or Fox Spirit. I have moved on from stuff like that as sometimes, they really insult your intelligence.

Yes, I meant on this comments section. I haven't been on this page since when the drama was airing so not clued-up with what's happening. Either way, we should all chill out a bit and be more open minded!

I'm afraid that's some fandoms for you. Intolerant and often hypocritical. A forum should be a place of opinions, discussion and debate on dramas. Not groups that roam forums to patrol and weed out those that fall out of their own view-point, labelling them as haters. That is shutting down free speech.

I'm told my views are nothing but a hater. This unhealthy gate-keeping of dramas has created an unsavoury atmosphere.

You have gotta say it as it is...If you look at the forum page, it's filled with fandom trying desperately to hold this drama up. That's fine. But in reality, many had already fore-saw what's in store with the predictable story-line that is not out of place for young teenagers. They had already deserted the drama by episode 6.

This over earnest and righteous message hammered throughout often made the drama stale. ML dying was already so obvious from the start. I just don't get why some are even upset. It's not as if the director had not warned you. Just enjoy the beautiful death! Extra part is just a gimmick to make it seem like something special was about to happen, but just like that anticipation for the drama in the beginning, the end result was underwhelming.

Yes, viewers are sold on visuals as you say, but for me, the story telling. pacing and logic also need to come together in order to make a drama appeal to a broader audience. Here, those that sings its praise were already part of the fandom or hardcore fan of the director's past works.

This drama was practically sold to its fans through reuters well before it even aired. Sadly, when it aired, there seemed to be no hidden gems at all. The villain was just classically a human who happens to be the only older and unsmoothed actor in the cast. How obvious is that?

For me. GJM has hemmed this project in by unashamedly creating fan service and not really concentrating on the actual story itself. Most of the dots were joined by many of his fans telling us how we didn't get it, or missed bits that were not made available in the drama. I think they're trying to make him seemed more profound when in actual fact, it's a project that was rushed and not well thought out.

If you are talking about all the walk-on parts like the cases with guest stars, fair enough but I still don't think it's 90% of the cast. Regarding the main actors, or shall we say the famous five around 50%. I didn't get my calculator out whilst watching...

The most important and lovable member couldn't live because the whole point of this drama is, this character couldn't possibly live, the existence of this character will not be compatible with the sole task that was expected of this character.

Main couple- the ML demon dies, just. You'll see if you can stomach the long drawn out ansty note with a bit of his blood stuck on it. It's there to make the drama look interesting and get fandoms lusting for another tortuous continuation. This is just to create yearning and inside-the-fan-circle dreaming .

Chef God dies (sacrificing himself like his father did for the greater good), Bai Jiu dies (trying to save Zhuo Yi-Chen). Pei Si-Heng breaks into pieces and may not be able to be resurrected, well that's what I gathered, but I note some die and turn to smoke whilst others leave a corpse. I don't think it has been consistent or to do with half-demon nor just full mortal human or full demon. These plot holes are evident throughout the drama, but this is paved over by gathering a high percentage of young appealing looking actors to smother a very slow and basic story.

Regarding bromance, it's subjective since I note a lot of people "wishing" it even when it's so far tech. Here it's the opposite. The director is a messy person and clearly was trying so hard to ship whoever he could. In the end he spread himself thin and most of the relationships seem unnatural and forced.

Zhuo Yi-Chen with ML demon seems stilted. His attempt at jealousy or frustration felt like a young child stamping their feet. ML also seemed like an old wise wizard with all those heavy draping robes, came across distant and knowing instead. That did not feel like bromance to me. Almost like he's wistfully wishing he was young and human. He fancied FL, (that's what the director wanted to tell us). But it was almost like an obsession than love.

90% of the cast will die? I didn't see that. In fact, not enough died. With all that crying and build up, it became a tired long drawn out wait to see who dies. In the end classically, the good die young leaving the ones that spent most of their days being righteous or pious living to ripe old age. In my opinion, it's a very dated format with tropey morals. In the end, it's drawn a full circle of where it began.

Not a problem at all. If you are into crime dramas, I recommend you watch The First Shot to see how the police are portrayed. The level of violence is on another level and very realistic. I must admit, I didn't know how that passed censorship because I felt it was sickening. Graphic drug taking and the consequences. I would hardly say that it paints a sanitised world.

Even in The Long Night, there was a grotesque scene where someone was humping a dead body!

Here on Under The Skin, it's far more calmer and more geared towards a broader audience and I think there is a bit of leeway for TJC's character to go off the rails and needs saving by Du Cheng. It's very evident season 2 is expanding on Shen Yi's character.

This drama obviously is going for the shock factor and not with reality. Let's be honest, by now Shen Yi should have been suspended, but no one seems to question his so-called "heroic" actions in the basement deaths. In reality, he will have been suspended and an internal investigation will be needed with his reckless behaviour endangering the case. But because we are in dramaland, his antics are brushed under the carpet as genius.

This is misinformation repeated. If you see enough Chinese dramas as I have, you will see these types of comments. It's generally not true. Of course most dramas need to pass censorship (this happens in most countries), and that means a core message is to not glamorise bad behaviour and influence others. What's wrong with that? I certainly don't want to be littered with gory things just in the name of entertainment.

You are not up-to-date with your comments there. There seems to be some repeated misinformation on MDL.

In Lost in the Shadows the ML (a police officer) went off the rails and went evil, tempted by a chance to get information on something very personal to his life. In The Long Season, a copper went off the rails beating up unofficial suspects and the story painted him as a hero misunderstood. So why can't TJC's character go evil?

Other examples of open ended dramas that quite clearly show the lead characters may have got away with murder. The Bad Kids springs to mind.

Also baddies do not always end up locked and key thrown out. In the Spy Game, it was very open and the baddies were still at large...

No problem. If by 8 episodes, you are still not getting into it, usually it's not a good sign in general. Happy drama watching!

Great to hear that. 😀