Nepeta 22

Agree with your points. Not a CDL fan to be honest, but made a comment because a poster was hoping CX would make a better lead. As mentioned by another poster, there is still speculation on who are main leads and CX may well have a leading role anyway. But it will be interesting to see what GJM has for CDL. I'm hoping it's not going to be still, calm and cold.

Ok, it's good to see some CDL fans. I'm possibly equating her popularity based on the amounts/lack of photos posted. I'm looking forward to seeing her appearance on A Lonely Hero's Journey which I suspect will be her next appearance, although I know she's on other dramas possibly going to come out soon as support. I have seen some of her guest appearances and would like to see her in a more physical or fighting role. The good thing with original scripts are it limits some fandoms trying to control the stars chosen for their roles.

What you show there might be what I suspect. The photo leaks are deliberate controlled images. Which leads me to think that GJM wants to show-case CDL. Could be wrong as CDL also has a "marmite" type image and she's not proven herself yet. When MJTY was promoting it was all Esther Yu and ZLH. But when the drama came out, I can see it's all Lester Lin and Cheng Lei. Looking at the cast list, plenty of faces that are potential future stars.

Going to be honest, many of Deng Wei fans are quite vocal and disrespectful. They were like this when he was a small-time star. They are fantasising about his bad-boy image. He probably knows this and keeps his head down. But all this littering of cigarette butts and gaunt heroin chic look is just the ticket that sends the young girls crazy. The idol drama makers know this, and it keeps his profile high.

That's because the name of the game is the "drama" is before the drama. This is classic fan-service. Controlled images let out for the fans. No doubt, when the actual drama comes out, all the lesser actors will be making a name for themselves whilst the ones at the front end of the drama hold the fort when it's airing.

The drama is probably a showcase for CDL. Knowing Edward Guo, he wants to be the one that shows to the entertainment business he can make this staid looking lady into a big star. After all this actress has been pushed really hard all over the place. She is also an IQIYI signed and possibly on a 2 picture deal. Just finished trawling through 1000s of photos here, and she might just figure in less than 10!

Just like Tian Jia Rui, he was never followed nor papped prior to MJTY on the Rosy Clouds page, yet after MJTY aired, all the attention has turned to this nobody that even new fans on this page had not heard about. I'm assuming Edward Guo thinks he can do this for her. CX might be the young fan's obvious choice, but I suspect she might be those props to bring in the crowds. We're already seeing this with all the guest star appearances.

OK, thanks for the update.

He didn't know. I guess, that's a deliberate part of the drama to make us think about the many unknowns resulting in a possible different outcome or the many different life choices we can end up making.

I still don't get this. Is the moral of the story for GJM is to stay off social media? The more he has opened up his set and engaged with the fans/public, the worse it gets?

Interesting comment. I didn't notice the AI generated style subs. Yes, I have seen a fair bit of dodgy subbing on other dramas, especially The Heart, but thought IQIYI's seemed decent.

I recommend it as it's really the first drama I have seen from China that doesn't end in the way expected. Without giving away spoilers, the end allows for a more realistic portrayal of the real-life spy world.

According to Baike Baidu, filming started in November 2021 and ended around mid April 2022. Filming started mainly in Shenzhen, but other locations include Dongguan, Huizhou, Ningbo, Hengdian & Macau.

Anyone agree with me or am I on my own with this. Actress Chen Hao Yu is the twin of Xiao Zhan.

You are right, there are loose ends, but if you are going on the female lead's story, then many could also ask very little has been given to the origins of Wu Feng itself and many of the handlers' backgrounds. I personally think they never intended the happy ever after ending, and this added bit about finding family back ground was a bit of an excuse to get her to leave.

I don't understand why so many are thinking part 2. The way the story has been told has been a mystery from beginning to the end and the ending fits exactly as expected. There is no way the writer can write a neat ending. Having a part 2 in my opinion is only if the writers want to entertain it much later down the line, but to me the story makes clear, the ending is in the spirit of the whole drama. It's not that sort of drama with a definite end. In fact a definite end would spoil the whole drama's feel.

This is how I felt. And sadly, it remained boring right up to episode 19. I dragged myself in to watch each 1 hour episode day in and day out. It was kind of worth it, but to be honest, they dragged the middle section way too long. At least 10 episodes were not needed. The mid sections should be chopped out.

Then from episode 19, they crammed in a convoluted storyline which packed in too much and too ambitious if I'm honest. Edward Guo clearly doesn't know the meaning of 'less is more' here. If you're into endurance, then you should be able to finish it.

I'm saddened that a good story and plot has been handled this way. Others are saying the opposite, but maybe they don't get bored of samey rooms and hushed chats. I feel this is more style over substance. It's a drama first, not just all aesthetics.

Character development is important and you do have a point. There was no development of the ML until the last 5 parts. There were sudden flashes of brilliance which did not sit naturally with no explanation. He just became brilliant through the 3 challenges.

The pacing was terrible. At least 10 episodes were long drawn out chit-chats in dimly lit rooms whispering to one another with no real plots or development.

As for the final episodes, it all came together, but it was clumsy. Some may even accuse the writer of being lazy and couldn't close what was started so crammed everything in and tell us the ML was great all along but wasn't revealed all along even to his future wife! Strange when you really think about it.

With all that weird & questionable behaviour, what better time for the FL to just up and go to investigate her past. This sort of ending tries to tell us unpredictableness of life and the story itself, so far...

When you say hot mess, I'm assuming you feel that the second couple shouldn't have been edited in a more favourable light? If so, it does happen in quite a few dramas. The hit drama for this year, The Knockout made the baddie the most relatable and even lovable, whilst the main lead the goodie cop was made to look annoying and unrealistic.

Sometimes, you can't control the audience. Collective echo chambers can occur like what happened to Fireworks Of My Heart, the viewers were more interested in Wei Daxun's creepy character with the FL.

I guess, wholesome characters nowadays are just unrelatable, coupled with JLH's sudden great swords skills that comes from nowhere tend to make people flick their eyes up and wonder, oh really? This is probably what's happened. As for Esther Yu's role, she's in constant fear mode, then, with unrealistic flashes of brilliance that comes out of nowhere. I guess the audience cannot buy into this strange way of character building, and after a while, it becomes jarring.

I don't understand why there is such a fuss on the ending. I thought the ending bit was the best part of the drama. The final 4 episodes were convoluted and way too ambitious. The ending could only be like that, how else would it end on? The whole drama was negative and constantly trying to lead us to one direction. If the ending was closed up and neat, it would be the complete opposite of how the story was told.

That's the usual. Unless she's some pop star or traffic star, she's more or less invisible. Majority of the fandom is hormone driven. The build-up to the end result is 'the' drama. Once the actual drama comes out, many tend to flop, only the hard-core fans do the cheering.