Vespertyne29

It makes me sad because for 3 or 4 years I considered her my Cdrama guru, and her top dramas were also my top dramas (Nirvana in Fire and Joy of Life, for example. And I LOVED her videos of the poems that Fan Xian drunkenly recited at the emperor's banquet. She is just so smart, well read, and well educated). But starting in 2023, and even more so this year, she rants about everything, and it goes far beyond the production values. It's often very personal when it comes to the physical appearance of actors. Recently, for example, she said that an actor was too short to make it big (and I didn't watch the entire video - I think it was in one of her long live videos, which are just too long and rambling for me to watch). I actually think she may have been talking about Zhang Wan Yi, who is 5'10"). That' s just not an attitude that I can relate to. Sure, I like tall men, but you don't have to be 6 feet or over to be a star in the Hollywood, which is far bigger that any Cdrama will ever be. And there are ways to minimize differences in height in films/TV. Simple basic things.
Another example was when she panned Joy of Life-2 because the platform on which she watched it had ads that constantly popped up or even ran across the bottom of the screen, and she ranted and ranted about that, like it had ANYTHING to do with the quality of the drama. If she can't find a platform where paying for a subscription gets rid of the ads - which is what I do on every single streaming service I subscribe to, from Netflix to Viki to Tencent, then I am sorry, but still. That has ZERO to do with the quality of the drama production, acting and story.
I think Blossoms in Adversity was one of the best dramas of the year - I have never liked any of Hu Yitan's dramas and dropped every single one of them, but I loved his character and his performance in BiA. I also loved the FL - have liked the actress since I saw her in Lighter and Princess. I thought the story about pampered, protected women of all ages having to be strong and learn how to support themselves was pretty awesome, and the relationship between the two leads was one of the best - they communicated!! Even when something came up that seemed unsurmountable, and they separated, it was always a known issue, not some silent noble idiocy. And eventually, every time, they found they were miserable without the other, reexamined the issue, and decided that despite the issue, it was less important than being without each other. Very mature, mutually supportive relationship that is rare to see in Asian dramas. Anyway, she did say something like, "at least the couple could communicate with each other, which is good," but that's about the only positive thing.
She didn't like The Double, she didn't like Are You the One, she didn't like In Blossom, she didn't like The Legend of Shen Li - oh, and for TLoSL she ranted about how the actor was too old and heavyset to play the lead! Uhm, he was actually perfect - he was the last of the ancient gods, far past ready to retire, and I actually loved it that the FL was stronger and feistier than he was. I loved the fact that there was an entire episode devoted to their post-marriage life, and that you could tell that when she realized she was pregnant, he was going to be the stay-at-home dad while she continued to do her warrior thing. It was a fun and refreshing drama, and they had tons of chemistry despite him looking like a 40year old man.
Anyway, I find no joy in watching her reviews anymore, and unless a drama triggers her love of Chinese history or literature, and she does special videos (like the poetry in Joy of Life and the history of Peking Opera featured in Winter Begonia (which I have still not seen!), then I no longer watch her channel.

I found the fact that being a single parent - including being a MALE single parent - was such a social stigma in Korea to be quite shocking, so that was one of the more interesting parts of the drama for me.
South Korea seems liberal in many ways, especially compared to China, and they are a democracy, so it always surprises me when they embrace draconian laws or customs. (Like putting drug users, especially marijuana users, in prison, or when a DUI with no injuries or an unproven accusation of smoking weed ruins an actor's or idol's career). I also hate the way accusations of unproven bad behavior when they are in MIDDLE SCHOOL come back a decade later, when they have a big success, and it ruins their career.). But the single parent thing - I just can't see the justification for it at all.

I don't remember the mother in the drama - I remember the awful dad. But what I mostly hated about the FL was that she was such a hypocrite to me. IIRC she met the ML when she got drunk and showed up to get hangover medicine, and it seems like they slept together? Or maybe not that first night, but the issue for me was that she had no problem going out and getting drunk, but he parties with his buddies and she demands that he can NEVER drink again! Under any circumstances! That just ruined her and the entire relationship for me.

If he had shown signs or a drinking problem - cheated on her, got in legal trouble, became a nasty and/or violent drunk, etc - then sure, put your food down. Demand they get treatment, stay sober. Some people are just bad drunks. But IIRC he was a cute, happy drunk, like most of the people in dramas. I can't remember what he did that upset her so much. But to demand he never drink again felt unfair and mean and hypocritical. So I already didn't much like her, but I hated her after that, and thought he was going to live a miserable life as a henpecked (there's another word, but I won't use it here!) wimp of a husband. And I find that type of man extremely unattractive, also.

But yes, I agree with you that the social issues addressed in that drama were very interesting and I usually enjoy dramas that address social issues. For example, it may not be a top-tier production, but I enjoyed watching Kdrama "Imitation," because it dealt with the types of exploitation that idol trainees can be faced with, as well as the damage that rumors and gossip can do to the careers of these young celebrities, regardless of whether they are true or false. I loved the Cdrama Moonlight because it dealt with the way new writers and literary genres are viewed with suspicion by academia and elite publishers and writers, and also - again - how unfounded rumors and accusations can destroy a promising young talent's career. Addressing serious social issues in dramas almost always produces a work that is worth watching.

I didn't see her drama that her appearance was criticized in (The Longest Promise, maybe? I didn't watch that), but there were a lot of complaints about her voice here, but I thought they were balanced out by a lot of people who found her voice fine. As for her looks, it seems that almost everyone said her styling in this drama was MUCH better than in the prior drama, and that she looked much better. But there was that POV that she had substandard looks for a leading lady.

I will criticize an actor's or actress's looks in private chats or other commentary places that I feel fairly confident the actual actors are never going to see. There are a few actors I cannot watch in a leading role because I find them so unattractive, and there are MANY actresses who I find super annoying and - in large part because of the dramas they pick and the characters they play - I will not watch them. But the way the Chinese viewers just rant on Weibo and other Chinese social media sites - which the actors most likely DO read - about actors being too ugly to play roles is just CRUEL. For example, I absolutely love Liu Yuning, and think he is quite good in the "idol dramas" he is in, and I find him to be attractive. But people were calling him ugly and saying he should never have been cast in A Journey to Love, and it was so bad that he actually addressed it. It made me feel so sad for him. Really heartbreaking. I am so happy that he continues to work - and to improve his acting. I really like the roles he chooses, and the characters he plays. That's a huge thing in dramas. I may not find an actor as stunningly gorgeous as some other actors, but when they choose the roles of characters, I love in dramas I find engaging, they look beautiful to me! And I am looking forward to The Story of Pearl Girl!

He was a fascinating character in the novel. 100% different in the novel.
I actually thought that the Dao Yan character in the drama was the scholar who was killed trying to defend his teacher, which Luo Shenyuan saw happening, but avoided the scene and pretended indifference, thus adding to the hatred his co-scholar friends developed towards him, when they thought his cold desire for power had made him not only abandon his teacher and friends, but align himself with Minister Wang, who had orchestrated his teacher's framing and death.
Maybe this is one of those "hybrid" characters, who takes on the plot-moving characteristics of two or more characters in the novel. Common and necessary for a drama adaptation based on a long novel with dozens and dozens of characters.

We don't know yet, but from Madam Chen's evil maid's comment, it appears that they blame his death on Madam Gu's "introduction of that quack,"
My guess - and it's just a guess - is that the reference is to a doctor who Madam Gu brought into the house (probably the one who gave her the drugs to induce labor to make Yining born prematurely, so that it would look like she was pregnant before she left to stay for a month or so at the Temple , where she was kidnapped and then impregnated by the injured stranger we later find out is Wei Ling (Duke YIng). Maybe the eldest son was sick, and the doctor treated him, but he died anyway.

They aren't blood related. What makes their relationship doomed is their unequal social positions. Lin Mao is from a merchant family, and he was the one his family hoped would finally become an official (he's obviously very smart, but just not interested in scholarly matters or becoming an official). Madam Chen is a social climber, and now that a prince is attracted to Yixiu, she'd never in a million years let YiXiu marry someone with what appears to be no social status and no prospects, like Lin Mao. I can't remember clearly, but I think that in the novel he actually does pass the exam (with litle effort, because he's really smart) and becomes an official. Or maybe he just impresses a court official and gets a court position that he enjoys - something that's interesting but doesn't take too much effort.

I kind of accidentally read the novel (I was reading the novel that Are You the One is an adaptation of) on mydramanovel, and the first chapter of this novel just popped up after I finished the last epilogue of AYtO, so I kept reading. So now that I have an idea of where the drama is going - and while I'm waiting for the next once-a-week-for-five-plus-years-now of The Double (aka Marriage of the Di Daughter), I think I will reread it.

I agree and am thankful! He is an evil man, who assisted in embezzling money from the army and then pinning it and executing Luo Shenyuan's honest teacher. He also killed his own older brother so he could inherit and gain power. In her life as Lu Jiaxue's wife, Meimei/Yining was insecure and unhappy. We find out that he was not involved in her death and that he loved her, but his apparent indifference was such that - although she doesn't see who pushes her off the cliff in the novel - she immediately thinks it is him (and in the drama she believes the woman who tells her that she was sent by LJ to kill her).

I will say that in the novel, Luo Shenyuan is also a gray character, but mostly because he masks his true goals while he is seeking power, after which he plans to avenge his teacher. In the novel, while some of his teacher's disciples/students are protesting and getting imprisoned/killed, Shenyuan pretends not to know them, and - most damning to his former co-student friends - he actually becomes an apparent ally to powerful Minister Wang, who is the one who set up his teacher to take the blame for the embezzled army funds, and who is an extremely evil and corrupt official. Also, he is quite a bit older than Yining (about 8 or 9 years older), and Yining is 7 when we meet her, and stays a child for the first 60+ chapters of the book, although with her entire past life's memories still intact, she is mentally a woman who has lived 37 years - 17 as a person and then 20 years stuck in her sister-in-law's jade hairpin before being "reincarnated" into the body of the (dead from fever after falling in a pond, which was blamed on Luo Shenyuan although he's the one who saved her) 7 year old Yining.
So kind of like in Joy of Life, where the 28 year old 21st century guy dies and is reborn with his memory intact into the body of a few-months-old baby in an ancient Chinese dynasty, YIning also has the body of a child but the mind and experiences of a girl who lived 17 years as a human and then observed and heard things as a hairpin for a long time. So she knows when she first sees Luo Shenyuan that he is going to be a powerful official in a few years, and is going to come in fist in the exam.

Anyway, I never wanted her to get back with Lu Jiaxue in the novel, and I'm even less in favor of it in the novel. But I think the actor who plays Lu Jiaxue is quite sexy. I'd like to see him in a contemporary drama or with his hair down in a wuxia drama! But I absolutely LOVE Zhang Wan Yi and his character in this drama, and also in Are You the One. He and the gorgeous Wang XingYue (Duke Su in The Double) are my big finds this year as far as dramas go, and my love for Zhang Ling He, who I first saw and loved in Maiden Holmes, has skyrocketed. There are some talented, beautiful actors in Cdramas these days!

She i a psychopath, plotting to kill everyone she sees as a threat or who has done her wrong in some way.
IIRC, in the past Concubine Qiao mostly told lies and spread rumors to get what she wanted - the lie that Madam Gu was bullying her, the lie that Yining pushed her and caused her miscarriage, etc. She became more brazen when Yining returned, but mostly it seemed that she was continuing with her spreading vicious rumors that would damage Yining's reputation and plotting to foster the negative feelings that Luo Chenzhang already had towards her and to ruin her reputation in society.
When it came to causing her physical harm, the most serious incident (the boulders destroying the carriage, almost causing the death all the occupants) was set up by her brother, without her knowledge.

But when it comes to Madam Chen, she is out to kill everybody who gets in her way.

But in Rise of Ning he is the only one who knows that Yining is not the daughter of Luo Chengzhang, and to tell the family would be to displace Yining, possibly causing her to be cast out of the family - without having any idea who her real father is (In the novel, the servants never see the injured Duke - they only see his servant, clearly a man of low birth and not a high born nobleman - who abducts Yining's mother to treat the injured Duke. (It's the medicine he takes for his injuries that cause him to lose all control of his senses and basically rape Yining's mother, but they apparently developed feelings for each other, and afterwards he tries to find her for years - up to the point that he realizes she was Madam Gu and died shortly after giving birth to his child).
So to tell anyone about this, and especially Yining, would destroy her life. He's not intentionally deceiving her.
(Interestingly, in the novel the grandmother is the one who finds out, and she tells Luo Shenyuan on her deathbed, making him promise to never reveal it and to always protect Yining. But even the grandmother thinks that Yining's father is some low-birth bandit. No one knows her father is Duke of Ying, rather than some lowborn criminal).

I had no idea that ZWI was in a remake of One Spring Night. I hated that drama - the only character I liked was the ML and his kid and his (weak) dad. I especially disliked the FL, who I never understood why the ML liked. But that's my personal taste. But if he's a Cdrama remake, I will give it a try. Maybe I will actually like the FL character in this one, and maybe he won't be such a wimp who lets a woman control him.

I think at this point it's pretty clear that Madam Chen killed Yining's mother.
I originally thought the reason was her husband's (First Master Luo) infatuation/love for Madam Gu, but in episode 21, when Madam Chen is in the ancestor's room with all the Luo family's memorials, it's her beloved eldest son's death anniversary. She is talking about him to her evil, murder-plotting maid and the maid makes a comment about how the eldest son would not have died if Yining's mother hadn't introduced "that quack.."
I took that to be a reference to a doctor, perhaps the one Yining's mother brought in to give her the medicine to induce labor, she no one would know Yining was not the child of her husband, Luo Chengzhang.
So Madam Chen had two reasons to kill Madam Gu - her husband's infatuation with her and also her belief that somehow Madam Gu was responsible for her eldest son's death.

So, here is my question after watching all the available episodes (22 after today's released episode).

Is there transmigration of souls in this drama? (I know this genre is supposedly banned under censorship laws that went into effect around 2018 or 2019, but I've seen it in multiple Chinese "minidramas" recently. (Although it seems they may have looser censorship rules, or a different censorship body, because they also have reincarnation, and there has been at least one BL mini-drama this year).

Or did Yining actually meet Lu Jiaxue when he was temporarily blinded by an injury to his eyes, and they fell in love at that point?

I ask because at first it seemed like with her nightmares, Yining was remembering what might have been a past life. (In the novel she was actually married to Lu Jiaxue for a few years before she was killed, and she thought he was the one who killed her so that he could pursue his career and gain power without being hindered by a wife who was from an average, and not particularly prominent or powerful family).

But it seems like in episode 22, she actually met him a few years earlier, continued meetings with him during which she taught him papercutting and he taught her chess, and they developed feelings for each other, triggering the jealousy of some woman, who told her Lu Jiaxue wanted her dead before she pushed her off a cliff.

So now I'm thinking that - like The Double, Joy of Life, and many other dramas in the last 5 years - the director and screenwriter had to work around the transmigration or reincarnation storyline to make the story closer to "reality," or whatever it is that the CCP is offended by in the reincarnation/transmigration stories.

I am really enjoying this drama.
I watched AvenueX's "first impression" review of it, along with other dramas that had just dropped, and I have to say, I am getting so turned off by her constant negativity - especially when it's based on things that are super petty (she hates the makeup shading on the FL's nose) or something that is not really the actors' fault (so Zhang Wan Yi has had 3 period dramas drop in 2024, and his styling is very similar in all three, and his characters are also somewhat similar. Does this mean he's the same in every role? Well, to the extent that the characters are similar, then there is no avoiding it. I'll never watch LYF, because I do not watch any dramas with that FL, but yes, his characters in both Are You the One and The Rise of Ning are very similar - highly intelligent men who are keeping major information from their romantic interest. And yes, their styling is very similar, in keeping with the period costume. But although the characters do have a lot in common, AYtO and TRoN are two different dramas, and the characters are different as well. I loved AYtO and I am loving TRoN.

I also really like the FL - I think she is both pretty and cute, and her nose doesn't bother me at all. In fact, she looks refreshingly authentic, like someone who hasn't had their natural features whittled away into the bland homogeneous look that a lot of actresses who have had plastic surgery have. I also do not mind her voice at all. What I can't tolerate is that high pitched, soft, breathy little girl sounding voice that far, far too many voice actresses have and use in the dubbed dramas. I hate the way they gasp and breathe audibly, and let out soft, breathy giggles constantly. It is annoying and distracting - and it's as if the voice actresses are too used to doing a radio drama or a donghua, and they need to supplement the written dialogue (or in a dunghua, the limited facial expressions of the animated characters they play) in order to add context and depth. That is NOT NEEDED in a TV or web drama, where the actress is perfectly capable of showing expressions on screen. This is one of the most annoying things about female characters in Cdramas - these annoying, childish voice actresses. But Ren Min's voice sounds like a strong but high pitched mid-teenage girl's voice. It sounds like it's her voice, and not some giggly, super high pitched, childish voice actress's version of what an attractive (to who???) Chinese female's voice should sound like.

So, spoiler questions will be in a spoiler post.

I read the novel this drama is an adaptation of, and I have a few questions that are spoilers, so

This sounds good, and I like the looks of the cast.
Is this based on a novel, and if so, is an English translation available to read anywhere?

You must be old and out of date. This is a MENTAL HEALTH issue. Surely if you are somehow affiliated with the MH field then you are aware of the DSM-V, and if so then you are aware of how substance abuse is categorized as a MH issue.
The fact that you - I don't know what, as a nurse maybe? as an administrator with no psych training? - think prison is the appropriate place for drug users, and is the best option to get them sober, is appalling. I'm glad you used the past tense re your job. No one with your attitude should be working with people who have chemical dependency issues. I work with treatment providers every day in drug court and programs my state has to assist people struggling in the community with mental health and substance abuse issues, who end up in the criminal justice system, often for things like petty theft (of food and warm clothes) and criminal trespass (living in abandoned or vacant buildings to get shelter from harsh weather). Thank the goddess they are NOTHING like you!

She dies. Killed by Na Zhan.

The scene with the baby was obviously a "flashback" to show she had the baby before she died. Which was ridiculous because she wasn't even visibly pregnant when RW died, and it certainly didn't seem like 6 to 8 months passed to get from RW's death to the 1st and 2nd FLs delivering the death blows to Na Zhan, but I guess that's the case. Makes about as much sense as anything else in this drama.

According to his explanation to the FL, Boa Agents go everywhere in the desert, and there are many holes in the sand (that they discover and use).

My conclusion was that he intentionally pretended to be caught in the quicksand and die, as part of his overall plan to bring down Na Zhan.

He is so charming when he plays a flirtatious rogue. Love his character in Journey to Love (or rather, Journey to Death, as it should have been called).

I wasn't a fan of anyone in this drama. Didn't care much for the lead couple and definitely did not like the 2nd lead couple.

I like Alen Fang, but agree that he didn't seem that into this role. Or possibly it was the wooden FL. I had never seen her before but seriously - she had such a flat affect the entire drama. Can she act? Or did the director tell her show one facial expression at all times in every scene? Yawn.
I wanted to like this drama, but it just dragged on and felt very repetitious.

And can I just say this? The increasing trend - both in Cdramas and Kdramas - of constantly showing "flashbacks" of the same scenes, over and over again, often when a couple is thinking of each other and remembering their "greatest hits" while together, is beyond boring - it's actually annoying. It's pure filler, popping up at least once, often multiple times, in every episode. If there were none of those repetitive flashbacks, I think every drama could be cut by at least one full episode, possibly more.

Same for me re Kdramas. I have dropped so many out of boredom or an intolerable (to me) FL - many of them are top dramas internationally, although I don't think some of those fare as well with SoKo audiences.

There are probably a lot more Cdramas released each month, so I am able to find several that I really like. I really love the wuxia genre - the long flowing costumes and hair styles for both men and women are gorgeous, and the choreography for the fight scenes can be gorgeously balletic. Also, for some inexplicable reason, I really like esports dramas. I just re-watched The King's Avatar for the 4th time - Yang Yang is definitely NOT in my top actors, but I love the story, and he is fine when he's staring at a computer screen, and 97% of the action is in the game. But the fantasy/period martial arts world dramas are my favorites. (Top drama for me is Nirvana in Fire. Loved it).

I'm really having a hard time even finding a Kdrama I want to start. So I just rewatched Sh**ting Stars for the 3rd time, and next I may rewatch WWWSK, which is a fun drama.

Everything is better with cats!!