Nepeta 22

I have not watched enough episodes to know whether the cruelty is excessive, so cannot comment, but from what I've seen so far, FL is presented as smart but still very naive. I feel the tempo is deliberate, to create a character that always lands on her feet without knowing she's cheated death numerous times. I take that as light hearted comedy and not literal. But, I can see how others find that unsavoury.

Everyone has a right to drop dramas, but when you put a comment with an opinion, you can expect another view-point as well. I'm not trying to persuade anyone. I want to let others know, I see the character portrayal differently.

I find modern romance dramas with 'try-hard' realism, trying to depict toxic relationships by re-branding them as passionate more jarring and problematic. Lighter and Princess springs to mind.

I'm just going to be honest here. If dramas were to focus on normal relationships, it's a risk and may turn out to be making a loss because in reality, audiences tend to look for something unreal.

For me, Wuxias, ancient times and the relationships, I tend to not take too seriously. Firstly, we know women had limited rights, secondly how much of the truth can be bent to cater for the modern audiences? That's something that's been going on for decades for historic dramas where relationships are concerned.

The issue may be the focus to kill someone drags out for too long, the editing is not done in a humorous enough way, or the ML is just not dashing looking enough to allow watchers to forgive him.

Don't know if you have watched A Journey to Love? In the first quarter of the drama, FL & ML are trying to kill each other. The FL was an exceptional martial artist. I didn't see many complaining on either side? I wonder whether this is the fact that she's a female trying to kill the ML (high female audiences wanting to see the balance re-dressed), or the fact that the editing was clearly done in a way to be humorous and (tongue in cheek style) that many seemed to enjoy rather than feel repelled. Just a thought.

When it comes to Wuxias, I tend to allow for classics that won't fly in reality, such as killing people like it's a walk in the park. Falling off cliffs and then landing well. Superb ability to recover from life changing looking injuries in record time which definitely makes modern medicine look useless and puts TCM right up there. And finally, revenge is to get even.

Don't remind me of that drama! I honestly sat through that for Zhang Jingyi. It's called band-aid romance and typically not really love but more an unhealthy balance where one wants to help the other and they think the thrill or rewards will be they get love and approval in response.

There's nothing grey about his character either. As you say, he was just a glorified bully with controlling tendencies. Not all poor people or people from challenging backgrounds end up like him and need excusing.

I thought you might pick that comment up. Yes, I mean by average dramas not specifically about romance. As soon as you see "historical romance", that also means the same. Aimed for young women.

Remember, how can a historical drama be acceptable for modern female audiences? Hand pick someone that's gone out of the norm to be a heroine. That's not average, that's curated for the target audience.

She will speak up, break out from traditional family ranks and of course be able to speak to ML or men like an equal, or above them. We all know in history, women's voices are more limited. But we are in a "historical romance" with modern day spin😉.

I'm here to see Li Landi and Zhang Ya Qin. I'm not here to immerse myself into the possibly unrealistic story line. Who knows, it may turn out to be a sleeper hit.

A Lonely Hero's Journey didn't get a good rating on Douban in China, but I'm sure on IQIYI and here, it might. Most rom-coms are aimed for teenagers or young women. The writers think they need to empower young women and it's not a reflection of real-life. More an idealise world for women, and since a core portion are female audiences, men will be a fantasy of being perfect and dropping everything for the FL. I get that. Perhaps, you need to branch into more mainstream dramas rather than rom-coms. There, you should see a more normal and realistic portrayal.

I made a review back then and got harassed in the review pages by "fans" of the drama, unable to accept a different opinion. So I've been there already...

What I found interesting is, how easily so many were easily swayed by just a pair of death-stare eyes and anti establishment personna, they were willing to forego all other flaws like demeaning comments, controlling behaviour and an ugly bullying personality. This must be appealing to some people's fantasy of what a rebellion must be. Scary.

Sorry for bombing down here but your comments got me thinking. Just recently finished "A Lonely Hero's Journey". FL and SFL suffered for the ML. And the ML was like a wooden plank. FL was like a saintly "in the time" woman... upright and also knows her place. She silently backs ML and yes he finally goes for her, but almost out of pity. Others feel she's been a doormat throughout. She suffered throughout.

SFL definitely also suffered. I won't spoil you as you may watch this, but let's put it this way. Her story line could only end that way as he can only be with one.

It would be more brave if he did because that would make the scriptwriters and directing more harder. I would say original screenwriting of A Journey to Love was brave because it didn't just rely on the tropey drag out enemy tension to prolong the episodes.

There, they made the romance instant and then had to engage us as viewers to watch their relationship grow. Which some may say boring and mundane. But, in my opinion it wasn't because they paid attention to real life relationships rather than build up on misunderstandings prior to a relationship forming.

Sadly, that's just too hard and many opt for the drag-out tension option. I suspect this would be similar.

You must be watching all the wrong dramas.

In "Who is he", the ML had to bat off a bunny boiler style FL throughout the years. She chased, begged and put herself in danger just for him.

I won't spoil you since you may watch it one day. Even with her suffering, he did not go for her because he simply didn't like her in that way. She suffered for sure, being a victim to a heinous crime. This was dressed up as real and for the good.

In "To The Wonder", the ML never changed. He did not suffer. His only suffering was firstly his family did not approve for his love for her. That's it. He even left and went missing for years because of a tragedy she had caused to his beloved horse. How OTT is that? That's hardly "simping". Even in the end, we are not even sure they will even get back together. That was dressed up as realism and pretentious.

I haven't even watched a lot of C-Dramas yet and I hit upon "Lighter & Princess." FL went through horrendous suffering throughout her quest to be with him. She ended up marrying a controlling abusive and bullying ML and even dumped her parents for him. He did not change.

BTW, that was dressed up as passionate misunderstood ML.

Next drama for Joseph Zeng. Other lead cast members rumoured to be Myolie Wu & Nicky Cheung.

In regards to the guy in the grave yard. She's scared and in a way stuck. If as you say she doesn't have any braincells, then it's even more likely she's unable to think of a way out of the mess she's in. Of course she thinks about herself and have a narrow view point. She's supposed to be a spoilt rich kid. She's not the FL, so she's not going to get the kind of plot armour a FL will have, or she'll over shadow the FL.

It's mean for me because I love her character! She's the classic silly character that will no doubt put the main leads in danger. Who doesn't like the ditzy side kick that is forever making life's wrong decision? It's not as if it's done in a way to be taken seriously. There is nothing serious or heavy-weight on any of the characters and their story line anyway. Her character is part of the mix.

You need to blame the script-writers, since it's often they who write women this way. More interesting is a lot are men writing about women. Wonder what that says..

I don't believe it's weight gain. There has been gossip that he's had fillers put in to take away his more bone structured face. There's this growing obsession with boyish smooth skinned looks brought on by endless former boy band members entering C-dramas. There could be pressure around him to move into a more idol-esk look of no broad jaw line and the flat and smoothed out face look.

Dashing Youth had residual interest and initial beginning ratings because of the brand. These passer-bys as you say which helped the early ratings are really the fandom of the author, Donghua and TBOY. You could say, this drama was made more possible with high anticipation from TBOY's unexpected success. I heard the author only wrote this after TBOY, and possibly even pestered into getting this out to ride off the success of TBOY. That's why there are gaps.

Even though that drama became much talked about and gained very high ratings here and in Douban, it's a lesson to all, it's not a given that is enough to guarantee definite success. Here, they chose the fresh meat option, and filled the drama with so-called eye candy thinking all the fan groups will converge to blindly add to the 'data'. But even that couldn't buy success.

You need to make up your mind. One minute he is not a traffic star, but then in your last post you seem to be happy to compare/measuring him against top traffic stars. I suspect to show that he is as good if not better than their stats because there had been a lull in Q3?

There's 2 things going on. You don't seem to want him to be marred by this drama's performance, conveniently blaming others (director or other actors), but happy to say he's the best of a bad bunch in this drama, to support your views based on so-called data and netizens' chats online in China. That's a bit cruel and disrespectful to the many actors in this drama.

I stand by my original view. This drama is lazy and lacks any originality. Not only is the casting of Hu Lanxin a mistake because she made BLDJ look like her annoying little brother, due to her mature looks. HMH's portrayal was also underwhelming. The data drop may not have anything to do with BLDJ not being around, but the whole drama does not live up to the initial hype.

The drama I mentioned is probably a sleeper hit, and previous well known international actors working in China did not gain that level of heat index. I doubt it was due to the ML's background. If the acting is solid, the drama's storylines are original and convincing, these things happen from time to time.

I replied because of fandoms' obsession with data, which you prove. I'm not interested in all that, but am interested in your view of why the viewing dipped. It seemed a bit naive. Of course, your view could be valid, but unfortunately, China's online views or opinions are not solid. I would take views of HMH's performance as a pinch of salt.

Weibo for a start is filled with marketing accounts creating fan fights, attacking rival/competitors and often, most comments are filled with obvious bots. Views online there should be taken cautiously where traffic actors are concerned. Beyond all the comments, this drama would be forgotten in a year's time.

As for hitting 10,000 popularity ratings in Youku, I suspect, if even a small drama like Escape From The Trilateral Slopes with hardly any fanfare can top that, it's fair to say, DY is very much average.