WK1

Fully agree with you that an extra 10 mins or even just 3 mins would have done the job. And this director is far too experienced to leave a gap in a story like that. I can only speculate that he wants us. as intelligent viewers who have watching this drama since E1, to exercise some imagination and figure things out on our own.

Many of the performance indices like Aiman and Vlinkage will be out later. If all these indices show this drama to be on top, and many of the characters are on top, it shows that not much damage has been done.

A very simple answer to your allegation that she is so stiff and so emotionless. Aiman's drama character index shows that her character in this drama is the most popular drama character for the entire first quarter of 2022. Vlinkage index shows that during the airing period, she is either top or 2nd. These indices are based on big data collected from multiple sources in China, based on thousands of feedback and responses.

Any logical person would have concluded that someone who cannot act could not have possibly impressed that many people in China.

While everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, if your opinion is against that many, I suppose only you can explain why you feel the way you do about her acting?? Do you have some inherent bias against her ethnicity? Is she a competitor to an actress you like?? You cannot handle the fact that an actress as beautiful as her is also such an accomplished actress who have won multiple acting awards?

I did not read the novel, but Bec sent me the final chapter and told me they changed it in the drama. So I went to read the final chapter before making those suggestions that I did, regarding the ending.

The ending in the novel is indeed clearer. But I think the ending in the drama is more dramatic. Them diving off that cliff reminded me of a scene from Avatar, the great Hollywood blockbuster. There the ML and FL also jumped down some kind of cliff, but they did it while riding on those big birds in Pandora. Here, Ji Yunhe and Changyi simply dived like cliff divers, knowing they will be safe since they both have tails and were diving into the deep sea.

And then finally, when they leaped out of the water, that is definitely more joyful than the ending in the novel. It speaks of the freedom that they finally achieved after enduring all the pain and sadness. And them becoming the same species will mean they will definitely be able to conceive children, while we may not be quite sure what happens when a fox copulate with a merman.

The only thing that was lacking was a short explanation of how Ji Yunhe got her tail, something which a little imagination from our part will be able to figure out (even without that text that is circulating around). Once we can figure out how she got that tail, it is not difficult to figure out how she got out of that lava lake.

Yes, it does seem that this is the pattern of this director. He does want his viewers to exercise a bit of imagination. In TLB he did the same. Lots of people said the ending was open in TLB, that LiChangge and Ashile Sun were not together, just because the final scene did not show them in the same frame. Some of us stayed on that page for months, and often, one of our tasks was to explain to people why we felt it was not an open ending. A little bit of imagination and connecting the dots would have led us to conclude that they were indeed together, as they were clearly in the grasslands and the flight path of that falcon was relatively short, showing they were really physically close to each other, but just maybe doing different stuff at different places in that scene.

In Noble Aspirations, this director did the same. He killed off the FL in the final scene, leaving viewers to wonder if she will wake up in Season 2 of that drama.

I suppose to each his/her own? For me, I do not mind to exercise a bit of imagination, hypothesizing what could have lead Ji Yunhe to having that fishtail. It is not the case where there were lots of possible explanations. It was pretty clear that the pearl was the best explanation; it is not difficult for us to imagine the pearl has some kind of magical power. Earlier, it was already shown that it is powerful enough to prolong Ji Yunhe's life. Now, that pearl is in her body for a much longer period of time. Plus, her body was also in that lake for a long period of time. It not difficult to imagine that some combination of the pearl and the intense heat brought about the structural change in her body.

And since that pearl is clearly linked to Changyi, and he is a merman, her becoming a mermaid was something totally plausible and logical.

The ending in the novel versus the ending in the drama

They are.

Last 2 episodes? Where have been watching it raw?? Dobuku? Just been shown hours ago.

Yes, nice to get that reassurance, as some people are thinking this is an open ending and not a happy ending.

I agree that he could have done a better job with the last few minutes, to explain things. instead of leaving it to our imagination. Yet, as a whole, I still feel that he did a very good job. Not to worry. Don't lose too much sleep over it. Tomorrow, when all the performance indices, we will know how the viewers in China feel about it. If all the indices are very strong, it means viewers are willing to forgive him for the lack of explanation how Ji Yunhe got her fishtail.

Yes, Reba did a super good job portraying Ji Yunhe. This character will be in our heart and mind for a long time. Allen also did a great job as Changyi.

If you are tired, just take a good rest. Don't worry too much about it.

I love the ending, with both of them leaping out of the sea with so much joy, both with their fishtail. It signals the freedom they both have been looking for, Yunhe wanting to travel around the world, Changyi wanting always to be by her side. If Yunhe is stuck with those foxtails, it will be slightly more troublesome.

And since both are merfolk, we know how their kids will look like. If one is fox and the other merman, we could be left wondering.

I doubt they filmed this. If they did, they would have shown it to us. There is no indication that there will be additional episodes.

Please do! Anything to help explain things to potential new viewers or even current viewers will be a great help. Just use WK1, if you wish to give any credit.

I really look forward to your video!!

My pleasure. At one stage, the person from the other end sounded really sad. Said there is nothing much they can do, but to get all the blame from international viewers because of the lack of subs. I told this person I will help to explain to international viewers. That provided some comfort for him/her.

This is how I feel. Youku invested a lot of money in this drama. Hence, they want to make sure that this show succeed in China, which is their biggest market, and they do not want to share it with anyone. Hence, they also do not even want Tencent to show this in China.

We can see that Youku did a lot of advertising in China for this drama. Lots of posters everywhere. And even some 3 dimensional displays in some cities.

Someone said the budget for this drama is about 200m RMB. Youku could well have paid 70% and Huace/Croton Media only 30%. This could explain why they got the China market and Croton the international market.

I think they do not want Croton to show this internationally, till it is completely done in China, even for non-VIP members, maybe they are afraid of leakage. Perhaps if viewers in China know that Croton is showing this internationally, they can get around the firewall and watch this for free. As we know, YouTube is officially banned in China. But, lots of people may know how to get around the ban.

I do not think it will affect the rating very much. This drama is amazing. Almost very bit of it. So, a little bit of clumsiness toward the end should not have a significant impact on the ratings. Especially, when we know that it is a happy ending.

I do not think it was Changyi dreaming. If they want to show Changyi dreaming, they would show him sitting alone by the cliff, and then the scene to change to him looking to the sky or something, dreaming about them together. But that is not the case. We can see very clearly, the last 5 minutes, they were both already by the cliff, together. So, it was not Changyi dreaming.

Yes, I do feel very strongly that they wanted to convey a happy ending in the final scene, showing them jumping from the cliff into the open sea. I feel that this ending, them jumping into the sea, and then jumping out again, both with fishtails, was more dramatic than the ending in the novel.

They changed this in the drama. In the drama, the Grandmaster was already dead a few episodes ago.

The change they made in the drama was rather simple. They used that final pearl that Changyi gave to Ji Yunhe. That pearl was in her body for a long long time, as long as she was trapped in that lava lake. The document that was circulated said it was about 300 years.

So, instead of saying they split the inner pearl into 2 bodies, per the novel, they say the inner pearl converted her 9 foxtails into a single fishtail and a powerful one at that. Powerful enough for her to use it to break the cover of the lava lake.

That would be my interpretation of the last 5 minutes. As we can see, it was a very very happy ending, with both of them having the fishtails. They can swim to anywhere around the world they want. Yet, they also have legs, which mean they can also go to any land that they wish. That would be complete freedom.

I tried to explain in a post right above.

The last 5 minutes, when the two of them were at the cliff, looking at the sun, it was real. How did Ji Yunhe get out of the lava lake? Yes, I agree with many of you. It is not clearly explained. But, before she was sealed, she did tell Changyi not to worry. When the evil spirit is all gone from her body, she will find a way to get out. And so she did get out.

My speculation on how she got out is related to how she got her mermaid tail. It has to do with the final pearl that Changyi gave to her. It was in her body for 300 years, during the time that the lake was sealed. And that pearl transformed her body and gave her the mermaid tail. If we can imagine that Changyi's tail is powerful, so is her tail.

She could have easily broken through the frozen cover of the lava lake with her powerful tail.

So, yes, they could have done a better job in the last 5-10 minutes. Show how she transformed from her foxtail to her fishtail during those 300 years she was in the lake. Show her using her powerful fishtail to break the seal and, after that, she went to look for Changyi by the cliff.

Why they do not do this, I do not understand. Did they overshoot the episode limit? No. They only had 20 episodes for Part 2. They could have easily shot additional scenes on how Ji Yunhe got her tail and how she broke out of the lava lake.

My only guess is that director left this to our imagination. We saw the last 5 minutes they were together, so we knew Ji Yunhe got out of the lake and got the fishtail. We knew prior to sealing the lake, Changyi gave Ji Yunher that pearl. The pearl was a very good explanation how she got the tail, and the powerful tail explained how she got out of the lake.

Here is my explanation for what happened during the last 5 minutes, which you may or may not agree with.

That is true. Unless they release all the episodes from part 1 and part 2 very quickly.

Most of us who want to support this drama, all the production and cast members, we will still wait for the official subs. 18 May isn't all that faraway, since we have waited this long.