WK1

I am somewhat surprised that sci-fi has not taken roots in China the way it grips the US. China wants to stay at the forefront of space exploration, which is pretty much about the future. So, more and more writers should write sci-fi stuff, and more sci-fi movies and dramas made. They can help to fueled the imagination about all things future in China.

From what you have described, it sounds like the source material for Ball Lightning is a good one. and Reba will be wise to pick it up. Perhaps she already did, but they have yet to confirm the male lead, and this is making it difficult to make any official annoucements. It ought to be soon, cause filming for LOA is just about done.

At some point, we can be assured that they will appear at some events together. And, they will make use of those events to showcase their friendliness toward each other, thus indicating to all LOA fans that their on-screen chemistry will be great. We can treat this their super-advance promotion for this drama.

I think we can be certain of two things:

1. TBW will be out by Q1 2022. I have watched almost up to E6 of Novoland Pearl Eclipse. Very different story from TBW. So, Yuoku need not fear that after watching that drama, viewers will be tired of TBW. Meaning, they can air TBW as early as Feb, if post production is ready and they managed to get the broadcasting license early.

2. TBW will certainly be out before LOA and both will be out in 2022. This is great news for us who are Reba fans. She will have two smashing successful dramas in 2022, the same as 2021.

Her way of speaking there appeared natural to all of us, because the voice actress who dubbed her voice is very good!! That voice captured all her emotions extremely well.

I am not sure if you are aware, but lots of online articles have nothing but praise for her performance as Qiao Jing Jing in You Are My Glory. YAMG is based on a novel by Gu Man, and Reba supporters who read the novel said that she brought the character to live, from the novel (sorry, but I seldom read source materials; I trust everything that those novel readers said, because I know them very well, from the page of The Long Ballad). And this show was a smashing success in China. At one point, so many people wanted to watch a particular episode, they crashed the online platform of Tencent (which is the producer of this drama).

Actually, Dilraba did not have to look cute here. Or, should we say, she did not have to 'act' cute in this drama. If you know her well, from all the BTS, you will know that cuteness is part of her personality or character. Which is why playing the role of Qiao Jing Jing is so easy for her. She merely need to be herself, and it would already be a great portrayal.

If you are a Reba fan, and my guess is that you are one, you should be very happy for her. Because, in 2021, she had two highly successful dramas back to back (TLB and YAMG), thus raising her profile among drama directors and producers. Meaning, in future, she will get more offers to act in dramas with great scripts.

At this moment, this should still be a best estimate. Because Reba is in both dramas, completion of post production for TBW will affect the airing date of LOA. You will notice, they say Q1 for TBW, and that is anything between Jan-Mar 2022. If, for some reasons, TBW is delayed, so will LOA.

Is this a good thing, having her two dramas airing back to back? It is. Why? You see TLB and YAMG? They aired back to back, and both were great hits, so it really helped Reba. Likewise for TBW and LOA. Both are expected to be mega hits next year. So, career wise, it will be a great for her. Furthermore, even though both are historical dramas, they are different. TBW is a historical Xianxia drama, while LOA is more of a historical wuxia drama. Storyline and plots are totally different, thus challenging her acting skills.

Why? I mean, what happened, after you watched the trailer?? You felt that the trailer is so good, you want to watch the drama even more eagerly?

Dilraba used her own voice in this drama. Her voice in TLB was dubbed by a professional voice actress. This has been her usual pattern. All of her modern dramas, she used her own voice. Her voice in historical dramas have been dubbed by the same voice actress since Ten Miles of Peach Blossom. Perhaps you got so used to that voice, you found her actual voice used in a drama a bit strange? But do listen carefully. If you compare this voice to all the voice found in Reba's commercials, you will know that this is her actual voice.

Yes, quite a few viewers have mentioned that her make up here is bit overdone. Her face a bit too pale or too white? Most of us just overlook that and focused on her acting.

There are lots of Reba fans here. Some prefer her character here, others prefer her character in TLB. Yet others appreciate both equally. We all have different tastes, and it is only natural that we feel differently about different characters.

Qiao Jing Jing here is an actress/celebrity and in The Long Ballad, she is Li Changge, a Tang Princess. Historical dramas are usually more complex in terms of plots and characters, so her character there is more complex, and she undergoes more character growth there than she does here. Perhaps you find that more interesting? But, we do need to bear in mind, she was a young girl of 14 there in Episode 1, and faced lots of traumatic events, hence more room for character growth. Here, when the drama started, she was already a matured adult with a successful career, hence less room for character growth. It was Yu Tu, Yang Yang's character, who faced career/money issues and experienced more change in his attitude.

Many of us do not mind both, because it shows Dilraba's acting range, that she can play both historical character and modern character equally well. But, it is ok to feel the way you do. There is totally nothing wrong in that, and quite a few people actually feel the same way as you.

Both this drama and The Long Ballad are successful dramas, each in its own way. YAMG is a modern drama, with greater emphasis on love and romance, and The Long Ballad with greater emphasis on plot complexity and character growth than on romance. Knowing their different emphasis can help us appreciate both types of drama.

I know why we feel that the wait is too long. We got spoilt. After watching TLB, we hanged around so long on that page, just endless round of analysing and commenting. By the time we were done, it was July. We hardly had to wait for YAMG. But YAMG ended in August, and since then, no more new Reba dramas. If TBW is aired in Feb or March 2022, that is indeed a long wait of 6-7 months (compared to the very small gap between TLB and YAMG).

It is all in the mind. We just need to tell ourselves, a few months....Just fill those months with some new high quality dramas, and before you know it, TBW will arrive.

I see. I think the general tone is ok. I do not think we are being nasty toward Birdlady, or toward any of the newcomers. We have a newcomer here by the name of realdealari. She is a very ardent Reba fan, and able to do research to defend TLB.

We are more alive these past few days than the past 2 months. We cannot go back to the days of May/June 2021, but this place sure looks like it can explode anytime, with every little news.

I think this place will be on fire again, when TLB wins more awards in China next year.

I just watched the opening sequence of novoland pearl eclipse. They have a mermaid there. The CGI is very well done. The mermaid looks very realistic, not cartoonish. Happy to let them go first. The CGI team at TBW will know what to do, to have even better CGI.

It seems that Yang Mi dubbed her own voice. I think this could be the first time she is doing it in her historical dramas. Regardless, I doubt Reba has the time to dub her own voice in TBW. I just watched part of E1. Cannot tell if Yang Mi did a good job dubbing her own voice.

Anyway, TBW will be different. We have a merman. Could be the first fantasy Cdrama that has a merman.

And Reba is at the top of her game now. I do believe she can match Yang Mi, if not even do better than Yang Mi. And Allen is great. Together with the other cast members, they will deliver for TBW.

We don't have to worry about novoland. We have faith in TBW. Anyway, both can be just as successful. They start now and finish by Dec. I think Youku will not want to show TBW till at least Feb 2022. Will be wise to put some distance between the two. Spend more time to make the CGI great. And editing, to make the entire drama flow logically.

Some competition is good. It will help to make TBW even better.

That is one of the things they might change in the drama. They might make her show more power earlier than what is found in the novel. If she is weak for 42 episodes, and then suddenly become really powerful in E43, it maybe too abrupt. Viewers will again complain that the ending is too sudden.

Perhaps, in the drama, they will show her gradually increasing in power, as we move from one episode to another.

So, sorry. I did not read the novel. I am just speculating about the adaptation.

Thanks for your kind understanding. The comment page on TLB just got very busy again in recent da ys, so when I tried to look for our exchanges, I just could not find. Must be buried by so many other comments.

I like your magic! Q1 for TBW is very likely. But, if they want to show LOA for Q2 of 2022, that means TBW will be out in early of Q1. They usually like to keep a gap, for dramas with the same leads, and Reba is in both. So, perhaps TBW will be out sooner than we thought?? But even so, to have LOA out in Q2 will be quite a challenge. They are still filming it. Lead time for post production for a historical drama is usually about 8 months. But LOA is quite short, at 40 episodes. Maybe they do not need 8 months.

Yes, she did say that in an interview, that she will want to get married, set up a family, when she is in her 30s, which is about to happen real soon. I think that at point in time, she will place priority in marriage and family over her career. But, once that is settled, I think she will want to act as long as it does not conflict with her role as a mother. However, if the love of her life really feels that it is best to just step away from entertainment, she might just do that.

Myolie Wu, from Hong Kong, continued to work into her 40s, despite being married with three young children. According to online sources, her husband is a businessman. But, there are those who claimed that she is working to support the family. Not sure who is correct.

If Reba has to work after marriage and after parenthood, hopefully it is because of her passion, and not out of necessity.

But whatever decisions she makes, we will of course wish her all the best. If she steps away from entertainment, I guess we will just have to keep rewatching all of her past dramas.

This is an important statement. I think not a single Reba fan here is a Lusi hater.

Having said that, and read all of the above comments, we need to be mindful not to start any fan war here. Regardless of what happened in China, I think international fans of Lusi will not behave like those toxic fans in China.

Here, we want to welcome fans of all the cast members in TLB. Those of us who are Reba fans, we may not be Lusi fans, but, we are not anti-Lusi as well. The moment we confirmed her winning of the award in Seoul, we sent our congratulatory message here, so that her fans here know that we are not anti-Lusi. We appreciate her performance in TLB. She played her role well.

Many of us felt really sad too!! But we soon got over it, knowing that this is realistic, as lots of people die during war.

Keep watching. If you are still at E15, you may just have to be a bit patient.

I laughed, reading your posts. If the FL lead looks too masculine, Reba and the production staff did a great job. And people who made those comments obviously do not know what TLB is all about, plot-wise. That lots of HaoYan fans tried to 'harm' TLB is hardly surprising.

When TLB was first aired, we already heard people saying Lusi's fans in China claim that she would have been a better Li Changge than Reba. And you can be sure that many HaoYan fans are also Lusi fans. Perhaps the lack of support from Lusi fans also led to TLB not getting even more views in China, as they might perceive that since Reba is the main FL, any support for TLB will actually bring more success to Reba and indirectly harm Lusi. Lusi has a decent fan base in China, and if they were activated as actively for TLB as Romance of Tiger and Rose, TLB would surely have gotten even more views than what we saw. Of course, without any hard data, it is difficult to prove any of this. We can only rely on logic to make our inference. Truth be told, it would not be too difficult to make an intelligent guess. If we know the number of Lusi fans in China, we can easily calculate what would have been a theoretical total views, if ALL Reba, Wu Lei, Lusi and Liu Yuning fans joined in to support TLB. It is quite clear certain groups of fans did not support TLB.

This is such a shame, because the Leyan character was not even in the source material. The producer/scriptwriters clearly 'created' her, hoping to bring in more viewing traffic to TLB. Instead, the very opposite could have happened.

Now, we can only hope that next year, when awards organisers in China consider which drama, which actor, which actress should deserve awards, they will not be unduly influenced by view count in China. Hopefully, they will look at the drama itself, see the great performances by all the cast members, the great cinematography, great directing which made the flow of the story seamless from one arc to the other, etc, and filter out lots of the unncessary 'noise' around this drama, when it was aired in China. If they do that, TLB should win many awards. For the drama itself and for many of the key actors/actresses and even for the director and producer.

She has the habit of appearing 'cold' to male stars who do not really know her or have yet to work with her. Take Yang Yang, for instance. At least one video showed her giving him the cold shoulder, and vice versa. But, once they collaborated on YAMG, it is a different story.

So, yes, we do expect her to be on really good terms with all of her male co-stars. And professionally, she will need to be, as they might collaborate again.

But moving from being friends and ex-cast mates to being life partner is something else. It is a giant step in her life. And, at 29, she cannot make too many mistakes, as a nasty breakup will cost her lots of time to start a new relationship. So, I think the only time we should congratulate her will be when her studio announce her relationship. Else, whatever else we hear will be just be noise.