WK1

Indeed. And quite a number of those advertisers are brands that Dilraba endorses. So, we can be sure that her core fans in China will be buying lots of stuff from those brands. In a way, this is totally fair. Those brands pay her, to be their ambassador. In return, they get higher sales. All three parties are happy: Dilraba, those brands, and consumers of those brands (quite a lot would likely be her core fans).

One particular brand stood out for me: Swisse. This is not even a Chinese brand, but an Australian brand. They sell all kinds of health supplements. And given how beautiful Reba looks, it is an ideal match. And health supplements must be pretty affordable in China. There is no doubt that after TBW, sales for Swisse products in China will balloon upward.

I tracked Cristy Guo's career. She is Dilraba's peer. They are same age. But, she started acting way before Reba, because she was a child actress. Individuals like that usually have very smart parents who brought their kids for auditions for small roles, hoping that they would eventually become big stars. Even Yang Mi started like that. Back in 2006, when I watched the first of her dramas, she was playing only a very minor role in Return of the Condor Hero, which actually made Liu Yifei a huge star in China. At that time, Liu Yifei was only 18 years old! Just imagine playing the FL at that age.

Anyway, while Yang Mi went on to become a huge star in China not because of Return of Condor Hero, but some other dramas, unfortunately Cristy Guo Xiao Tong did not. Once Upon a Time in Lingjian Mountain was never a big hit in China, and even there, she was not the main FL. To succeed in China, which has thousands and thousands of actors/actresses, you must really impress once given an opportunity.

Our dear Reba did impress, even just playing a supporting role in TMOPB. But there in that drama, she was given a sizeable screen time, maybe all thanks to Yang Mi? Regardless, she shined in that drama. Viewers in China fell in love with a cute Baifengjiu, a character which did not have a good ending in TMOPB. But she impressed millions in China, and they clamoured for a sequel, and so we got ELOD. And this time, she was indeed the FL, and she delivered.

Some people say she is what she is only because of her looks. Hardly. Another of Reba's peers, Gulnezer Bextiyar, another beautiful actress from Xinjiang has great look too! And at 1.72 m, she is even taller than Reba (which is 1.68m), she would make her an even better model than Reba. Yet, our dear Reba even outdo Gulnezer in product endorsements or as a catwalk model. It all boils down to skill (and, of course, Reba's excellent off-screen clean and no scandal personality).

Back to Cristy Guo Xiao Tong. We could consider TBW as somewhat of a break for her, even though she is just a supporting character. I think she did more than enough to impress. But, she impressed more as the evil Shunde than as Ning Xi Yu. All of her previous roles, she did not do enough to impress, hence she did not land roles as the main FL. If she wants to progress in her career, she must really impress in her next drama as the main FL. We may have to wait till 2023, because there is none in 2022, with her in the main role. After TBW, she might just get her break.

That is indeed the case. Especially in the past. But, I think it is no longer the case. They have tighten up the viewcount process. Which is why in the past we can have drama with 40 or even 50 Billions views. Now, it is difficult to even hit 5 billion views.

And yes, using viewcount alone is not an accurate way to look at the success of a drama. But, unfortunately Tencent still only use viewcount as the main index of success. However, it does also use number of advertisers in a drama. And YAMG has lots!! So that drama became a huge commercial success, even though it has less viewcount than Doulou Continent or Crime Crackdown back in 2021.

I am also still here on this page, even though I have started to comment on Part 2 page. In fact, once the subs are here, this page will surely come alive. So, do hang in there.

If you are referring to the time when Ji Yunhe was Aji, I think it is ok. If that portion drags too long, the entire drama may lose focus. As it is, the drama likely has far more humorous moments compared to the novel.

Yes, she did a really good job. Now, she needs to act well in a positive role in her next drama. Or else she will end up getting typecast as a villain.

As Youku does not rely on viewcount to show a drama's popularity, we have been looking at Youku's Heat Index.

Another source of data we have been looking at is from Aiman. This is frequently cited in Twitter. I tred to find what is it that they do, and here is the info, if you wish to know: http://eng.aiman.cn/aboutUs.html

So, basically, what this company does is to collect data from all the various media that covers the entertainment industry in China. These data are then compiled into useful information for various product owners (e.g., cited in the article refers to international companies which we are all very familiar with, like Coca Cola, etc), which will then use them to decide on their advertising decisions. So, it is not just a question about winning a ranking competition to satisfy one's ego, but that information is useful for decision making. Those who are ranked highly will lead to more advertising dollars for the producers, thus making them even more attractive targets as leads in future drama productions.

So, Aiman has collected data to show which are the drama characters that have made the most impact in the 1st quarter in China. One magazine has discussed the data provided by Aiman and you can read it here and see who is the champion for the 1st quarter: https://www.beauty321.com/post/47791

Numbers do not lie.

Right from the beginning, I had great faith in this director. I will not say much here, as we could be analysing this drama again, when the subs are out, just want to add your comment, as one who did not read the novel, everything flows just ever so smoothly, in these last few episodes.

There is no internal contradictions in the storyline. The linkages amongst all the important characters in this drama, their backstory, etc, all perfectly explained by the director, from the way the drama unfolds, in seamless story telling.

What he took away from the novel, he more than replaced with even more touching scenes, more emotional scenes. A lot of novel readers seem to want to see more darkness, more whipping, more blood, because that was what attracted many readers to the novel, pain through physical kind of suffering (at least that is the impression I get, as a non-novel reader). He took away some of those kind of darkness, and replaced it another kind of suffering, emotional suffering.

There is just so much emotional suffering, I do not recall when was the last time I cried so much watching a Cdrama.

I do not know what it was like during the screening of TLB, but right now, the Ji Yunhe character is dominating the airwave in China.

She keeps improving, playing the role of a strong female lead in a historical drama.

I suspect, this is a part of her own personality, that she is really a very strong and fairly self-confident person. That is why she could project that image so well in all her recent dramas.

Just read an article which claimed that Reba's next drama will be a modern one. And male co-star could be Xiao Zhan.

It means 79 different companies have placed advertisements during the broadcast of TBW in China. Sometime back, I read there were only about 35. Now, it has grown so much, thus indicating how popular this drama is, in China.

Put yourself in the position of those 79 different companies, why would you place ads during the screening of TBW? It must be because this drama is very popular, am I right? That lots of people in China are watching it.

On the left of this Tweet, are the names of the 79 companies who placed ad. I noticed the first name: SWISSE

It is a brand that Dilraba endorses. It shows that they are supporting her. Isn't that wonderful?? She is supporting their brand, and they are supporting her drama.

Apart from everything else, more companies placing ads in a drama means more money for the producer, which will be Youku in this case, since they hold the broadcasting rights in China.

I suspect that is how the partnership between Youku and Huace/Croton Media works .

Youku will have broadcasting rights in China. They will pay for all the promotional activities in China, like placing posters all over China to promote TBW. We saw lots of posters in shopping malls, subway stations, etc. In return, Youku will get to keep revenue from advertisers in China who placed ads when TBW is shown in China. They will also collect subcription fees for VIP members who watched this on their platform.

Likewise, Huace/Croton Media will do the same for overseas market. They will pay for any promotional activities, e.g, maybne sending sales staff to talk to overseas broadcasters, etc. In return, they will get to keep the fees that overseas broadcasters pay, to have TBW shown in their countries. If this drama sells some of the broadcasting rights to Netflix later on, likely Huace/Croton Media will be keeping that.

That will be one way they could have collaborated. Aother way is to work out a cost/revenue sharing formula for both the China and Overseas market. Each party pays a certain percentage of the costs, and will share certain percentage of the revenue.

She is one fearless lady. I think her fearlessness does get on the nerve of the grandmaster. Even Shunde got irritated by her fearlessness.

Very nicely written. It does capture some very important elements of the drama. When we discuss after more people have watched it with English sub, we can dig deeper into the drama. But, the contents of this article is definitely very useful for us to bear in mind. Nicely done.

Oh? That will interesting. Let's see if they will keep it per book or change it to make it even more dramatic.

That would be so true!

Looking at the BTS videos, I think they got along very well, off screen. They really enjoyed this collaboration.

Got it. Yes, if too many episodes, it will mean that they will add even more fillers episodes. Judging from the comments of many people here, most viewers do not want too many unnecessary episodes just to lengthen a drama.

So, right now, things are about right. The order more or less follows the novel, and you get to see your favourite scenes earlier. Don't know what happened to the underwater scene. Maybe too difficult or too expensive to film? Or, perhaps they will replace it with something else, or have already done so?

And her coming to term that she was never going to win Changyi's heart really helped her to mature as well. I think they added her character to make the story slightly more complex. I know most people are annoyed with her cousin, and that the fox tribe was given way too much screen time.

When this drama is done and dusted, we can try to calculate the screen time given to various characters. I remember that when we were on the page of TLB, not sure how that person did it, but she was able to compute screen time given to each character for the entire 49 episodes. Perhaps Youku will do it for us?

I think he did very very well in TBW. Very good chemistry with Reba. In a drama like this, it is their chemistry that carries the show.

He can marry that assistant of his. Si Yu? She is very faithful to him and has also matured throughout the drama.