WK1

Mikimoto is a Japanese brand

It must be, because this news just came out yesterday, China time. And lots of people were very unhappy, including many of his fans.

One commentator mentioned that hurting Chinese netizens' feeling is worse than what Kris Wu did, so all those sponsors dropped him faster than they dropped Kris. The Chinese government could well have pressured all his sponsors to drop him with 24 hours of those leaked photos.

He did clarify that he took those photos because of a friend's wedding. I think it is a bit too late. Paying a big price now.

It is a very small world. 10 years of hard work can be so easily washed away by a few mis-steps. This is by far the biggest news to hit the entertainment world in China after the Kris Wu scandal. He lost all his product endorsements in China and his acting roles in two projects. Like you, I hope he can survive this mistake.

Thanks! She has time to do this? Thought she was supposed to be filming in Hengdian?? Maybe this was done in her hotel room, on a day off from filming her scenes?

Not sure how many of you read this?
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1231431.shtml

Did he do what he did because he endorses a Japanese jewellery line, and the brand owner asked him to do it?? If so, I felt so bad for him.

But that is exactly why many of us appreciate Dilraba so much, because she is able to stay out of this sort of trouble. She endorses a major Japanese brand too, and never would have done the same thing even if they pressure her. Being a Chinese from an ethnic minority, she knows how to stay out of trouble and remain in the good books of the Chinsese authorities.

I wrote this about a while ago. Not sure if this is what you are looking for. At the time I wrote it, I thought Li Changge was about 15. I now think she is more like 14, when the event in E2 took place.

https://kisskh.at/discussions/princess-changge/62543-important-historical-timeline-and-what-it-means-for-all-the-events-in-the-drama

I do not like all the gaming scenes myself. So, what I suggested to you was exactly what I did. And I felt that I did not lose one bit of the storyline or enjoyed the drama one bit less than those who did not mind watching all those game scenes.

I did not read the novel. But, is that what it is? If they show YT smoking in the drama, it will never pass the censors. It will just go up in smoke.

From the trailer, it seems that the FL will face some sad events in her life. I do not mind this kind of sadness, because it will help to show the character of the FL, what makes her sad, and how she copes with the sadness, and how later the ML will help her cope with the sadness. The ML will have some issues of his own.

My guess is that, that will be overall storyline.

There are indeed episodes on gaming. But the gaming is used as a plot device to bring the two leads together. You can read about it in the synopsis above. However, the main focus isn't about gaming, but how the relationship of the two leads developed as a result of the ML having to coach the FL to play this particular game for about a month. At the end of the month, FL takes part in a competition, and thereafter, the game does not feature in the drama anymore.

Hence, if you find the gaming part boring and you are totally not interested in it, here is what you can do. From Episode 1 to about E13, whenever you see scenes involving them playing game, you can fast forward those scenes without losing much of the story. But, you cannot fast forward ALL the scenes from E1-13. Because many scenes consist of them interacting and they are central to the story. Just fast forward those involving them playing the game.

There is a ranking system of celebrities in China called the Power Star ranking. They ranked celebrity female actors and actresses week by week. For example, for the week of 26 July to 1 August, for female actresses, Dilraba ranked 1st ahead of other actresses like Yang Zi and Yang Me. For male actors, Yang Yang ranked first ahead of other actors like Wang Yibo, Xiao Zhan, etc.

But, since last week, they have stopped publishing this list, because the Chinese authorities want to prevent celebrity culture in China.

The Power star ranking is just a ranking of popularity, not a ranking of their acting abilities. So, China does not have an official list which says which actors are A list, and which actresses are A list. Since they do not have such a list, there is also no official ranking of which are the best actors or actresses.

Since the Chinese authorities want to crack down on celebrity culture, as a result of the Kris Wu scandal, I doubt we will see any official list of A-list actors/actresses.

There is a list here, provided by this article. It provides the view number:

https://www.jaynestars.com/news/top-10-chinese-dramas-for-first-half-of-2021/

Are you asking, from that list, how do we know who are the A list stars?

TOOL only has 29 episodes. By E3 or 4, we should be able to tell if it is going to be a bit hit. Usually, for a big hit, the 1st Episode will have very high traffic, like close to 200M views, and it will be able to sustain this level for the first few episodes.

Do not worry about your ranting. Lots of people here ranted too, when they saw that scene. It split the people in this forum into two camps. Some felt like you, she should not have killed herself, but others said it she did the right thing, because she loved her husband so much, and she also knew that her daughter will be in the good hands of Li Changge and the rest.

This is not the first time that a story is written like that. In a Chinese Xuxia drama writteng long ago, the same thing happened. When the husband died, the wife killed herself, leaving behind a young son.

Will Yuan'er grow up to hate her mother. Not very likely. She ws very young, when her mother joined her father in death.

I do not want to spoil your fun of watching this drama, if you have yet to finish watching this drama. But, if you have already finished watching it, I will tell you why I do not think she will grow up hating her mother for doing what she did.

For TLB, we do not know why it was cut from 50 to 49. They usually do not give any official reasons for such decisions. I watched the Song of Glory too, and there the interpretation of the ending broke into two camps.

But not so for TLB. Those who have followed all the conversations between Li Changge and Ashile Sun will know that they ended up happily with each other, at the grasslands. But, you do need to watch it till the end to realise that. Because the ending scene does show that they were in the grassland. The ending scene is very unique in Cdrama. They were not in the same frame, but if you look closely and calculate the flight of the eagle, you would know that they were very close to each other. I did a rough calculation of it, and you can read about in the Recent Discussion section above.

Them not being in the same frame just shows that they are both highly independent individuals. Though in love, they need not be bound to each other 24/7. And Li Changge is so clever, she can speak the language of the Eastern Turks and many of the dialects of the tribes there. She can fight and defend herself, if necessary. So, she does not really need for AS to be her constant bodyguard. And when she does get into more serious trouble, she knows that that eagle from Ashile Sun can relay messages and he will be able to get to her in no time at all.

We felt that this sort of ending is more 'classy' and unique. It demands more from the audience, to connect the dots and make more immersed the drama.

Although I am not a fan of either Yang Zi or Xiao Zhan, I am not their anti-fan either. I did watch one or two of their previous dramas, and pretty much wish for every drama that has nice a plot and good acting to do well. It is a fair reward.

When I went to the page of TOOL, I can see how happy so many of the people there were, when YAMG was aired. They all knew or suspected that TOOL will come right after YAMG. Some have been waiting for a long time, so I feel happy for them once the airing date for TOOL was confirmed.

I read the synopsis of TOOL. It looks like a sadder drama than YAMG. If so, as long as Yang Zi or Xiao Zhan can cry well, the drama will be a big hit.

So far, there is nothing official on what she will do after Legend of Anle. Her team could be negotiating for her new project right now, so we just need to be patient and wait for official annoucements.