WK1

I see. Ok. It really depends on what you are looking for. This drama has some video games component. But it is not a heavy component. It is used as a plot device to bring the two leads together.

The major thrust of the drama will eventually about the love relationship between the two leads, how they will 'find' each other and support each other after going through some initial difficulties.

It is a very mature drama, dealing with life issues, decision making and so on.

Does this sound like something that will match your taste??

Yap. I watched all 12 episodes of YAMG about twice. Listened to all the conversations on multiple platforms (Viu, WeTv, etc, etc, in Mandarin and then in English). So, I do think my rating thus far is pretty much fact based and not fan based.

1st 12 episodes already brought joy to my heart and tears to eyes. Ask me any scene from any episode, and I can give you evidene and explain to you, clearly, why I feel the way I feel.

I did not even watch a single episode of Love Designer, even though Dilraba is the FL, when I read bad reviews of that drama.

It does look like a mess. But please do not worry. Pretty soon, it will be sorted out. But, you must be aware, this is not a Deng Lun drama?

Yeah. As long as they watched the drama, pay attention to all the dialogue and interactions and give a fair opinion, that is ok. We are made differently, so it is inevitable that we react differently to even the same stimuli. But, if people opined without even listening to the conversation in the drama, or otherwise watched the drama carefully, and just give unfair opinions, that is not cool.

For example, some people say YY has an expressionless face. And then started to give evidence, etc. Even if we do not like it, we will still say, ok fair enough It is fact and evidence based. And then others start to explain it could be this way, that the role of YT calls for YY to be expressionless now, but he will emote later.

I think those kinds of interactions are really productive and fruitful. Everyone learned something from it, even if we may not all agree.

But if someone comes here and say, YY is not a good actor. And we asked "how so? what makes you feel this way? Maybe give us an example?" and that person says, "I don't have any reason. I just don't like it. Don't ask me anything. That is my opinion. Just respect my opinion." That is the kind of comment that is really sad to read. If they cannot articulate why they feel the way they do, it does make you question if we are even watching the same drama.

Any smart intelligent person should be able to give a reason for his/her opinion, if that person wants the opinion to be taken seriously, and wants to engage with others in meaningful exchanges, for mutual benefit and understanding.

I was in TLB forum for around 3 months. It truly is a family there. We faced criticisms of all kinds too. Too many to list here. But we coalesce rather quickly, and defended it really well. One by one, all the commentators with fan-based opinions left us alone, and it became like a family. Those with different opinions, but are fair and objective, we hardly mind. We just leave them alone. No point to discuss things with them, since they do not like the drama or Reba or Wu Lei. They will not enjoy our views, neither will we enjoy theirs. More exchanges will only lead to more hate and mutual displeasure.

But this is the first time I see such fierce attack on the rating of a drama. That in just about an hour, the rating can fall from 8.6 to 8.2. We did not experience this kind of vicious attack at TLB.

It has recovered to 8.3. But 8.3 hardly do justice to this drama. Not by a long shot.

I am not worried about this drama's performance in China. Reba and YY have huge fan bases there and can fend off any attack. But here in MDL, I am not quite sure. Will Reba and YY's international fan base, those that come to MDL and rate, will they be large enough to reverse that attack of 2 days ago? Hopefully it is.

Yes, if you do love this drama, give it a 10. About two days ago, close to about 100 individuals dropped a bomb on this page.

I was here when it was 8.6 with about 340 raters. An hours so later, it dropped to 8.2, with 450 raters. Statistically, one or two persons cannot drag it down so low, so quickly. At least around 100 people rated it super low (likely from 0-2). We can eash speculate how that could have happened, but it did happen.

For a historical drama with 50 episodes, there is time to recover. But not for YAMG. This drama is moving so quickly, the average rating may not have the time to recover. In two days, it merely recovered from 8.2 to 8.3.

And this is not about a rating war with another drama. This is about sending the right signal to would-be viewers who may be using the average rating to decide if they should watch this drama or not.

But rate with honesty and integrity. Rate it high only if you truly love it, to counter the attack from those 100 plus people.

Anything that is of some worth ought to be taken seriously. Of course, if people don't like something it is their right. That is what opinions are all about. People should be allowed to express their opinions freely, without any fear whatsoever. But, that opinion should be fact based and driven by evidence, not fan biased baseless opinion. And it is not difficult to differentiate those.

I don't think this comments section will ever reach the same level of that of TLB. But, I do derive joy from differentiating viewers with real authentic opinions (even if they differ from the majority here) and fan- based haters. Especially those who comment without watching a single episode of a drama.

Ah? I hardly think you are a hater. I have to be blind not to know that you are a fan of LQ. I see LQ's face there flickring all the time, whenever I see your name. I love watching her dramas, since Joy of Life and will never forget the 'drumstick lady'.

And you watched so many dramas, so very likely a fan of Reba and YY too. And I do not even know what chaohua levels are. Honestly.

I brought up these other celebrities, because someone had already checked on the profile of Starblink and found that he/she rated My Dear Guardian a 9. I went to the page of My Dear Guardian, read the comments there, wondering if I should watch, since I like to watch LQ dramas. But after reading some of the comments there, sounds bad, so I stay away. I don't just read one or two comments. At least around 20, to do fair sampling. So that person concluded that Starblink must be fans of either LQ or Johnny Huang. I trust that conclusion, since I went to the MDL page of My Dear Guardian.

Hence I used LQ and Johnny Huang for comparison with DD and YY.

I know Powerstar ranking is for buzz, not for acting. But I also aware of the acting awards that Reba won, so I am hardly ashamed of using Powerstar ranking as a proxy for her acting success.

Zhou Xun, I watched her years ago. Legend of the condo hero (2003). Chen Kun, in Rise of the Phoenixes. I do not deny they are good actor/actress. Back in 2003, I knew just how good Zhou Xun is. Chen Kun, only recently, from Rise of the Phoenixes.

But they are good don't make Reba and Yang Yang bad.

When I asked Starblink what makes her think that Reba and YY is not good. She cannot think of anything. Clear sign that either she did not watch YAMG, or did watch but made a premature conclusion that YY and DD did not ace their roles, when clearly a great of people here do.

I am all for differences of opinion, but differences based on objectivity, not fan-driven biases.

I will leave you to decide whether I am a toxic fan.

I do not know which agency Yang Yang comes from, but technically, Reba is not managed by Tencent. But Yang Yang and Reba are two of the brightest in the Chinese entertainment industry. Tencent is out to make money, for sure. It is quite fair though. What do we expect of a money making company that is publicly listed? They are just doing what money making company ought to do and doing it so effectively.

I am not a gaming person, so Tencent is not going to make a single cent from me. All those gaming scenes? I just fast forward 1.5x. Sometimes even 2x. Not losing one bit of the plot. Enjoying it like crazy, due to the excellent acting of our two leads and their chemistry.

Really hard to tell from those comments. This is an open forum. Anyone can come in to make comments. So, we don't really know. And people who do not like Reba and Yang Yang don't really show you their true colours. In fact, some would deliberately tell you, they are fans, and then go on to say they did not do well here.

But you know what? MDL is really great!! We can check the profile of commentators. The more some people comment, the easier to identify who they really are.

Believe me. If you are familiar with both of them, let me say I stayed 3 months at the page of TLB. I will use all those experience to help weed out haters, and differentiate them from genuine and objective drama viewers.

Yeah!! Don't worry too much about those who are jealous and the mad toxics. Many of us stayed for months at the page of TLB. If the toxics stay quietly, will be hard for us to identify them. The more they comment, the more it will be easy for us to identify them and manage them. We will use our experience to first identify all the haters, the envious, the mad toxic, and handle them one by one. You can count on it.

But, we do need to be careful. Not every one who comes here and disagree with the majority of us is a hater. We need to probe. To check their profile. What kind of dramas they watched, who are they supporting, etc.. This will prevent us from jumping to the wrong conclusion.

Yeah! Those exes are a plot device, to spice things up and make it more interesting. But hardly love triangle.

Ok. A fair enough answer. But do be mindful. Lots of highly experienced drama viewers here. Whatever you feel or opined, make sure you are well armed with evidence to back up your views. Or else, no one here will take you seriously.

Also, if you still need more episodes to find the answer, it is not wise to come out so early and say they have yet to ace their roles. You really should have waited before making any comment.

That seems to be the case for most modern dramas. They don't really rely on plot complexity to hook you. The real hook is the acting and chemistry between the leads. Do they look believeable in their individual roles? Do they look like they are really in love, or on the way there?? And even if they do quarrel, do they look like they are really quarelling? Because it does take good chemistry to make a quarrel look real.

There is no question YY and Reba have aced both their individual roles and the chemistry part. Should be a great drama.

I read your checklist. You do look like a really serious viewer!! I have watched up to E12. Everything pretty much checked for me, except the game portion being a tad too heavy. I can understand that, because the producer, which is Tencent, needs to make some money to recover costs or maximise their returns on investment from this drama. I have been told, the novel itself is pretty short anyway, so having those game stuff does help to prolong it a bit. No big deal for me. But everything else is great. In China, this already a bit hit. Not sure if it will reach a mega hit status, but certainly a bit hit.

So, I would like to hear your view. which part of the acting by Reba and Yang Yang makes you feel like they did not quite live up to your expectation? This is not a trick question or an attack question. A genuine question. Because, it could well be you do not understand certain things about the characters they play, that made you feel the way you do.

As you probably know by now, I did not read the novel. But the comments made here so many people did make me realise there was quite a fair bit of it in there. But when Gu Man adapted it for the drama, she did have to consult many aerospace experts, because those aerospace scenes must have credibility. Millions will be watching this, and needless to say, there will lots with technical background. They will absolutely laugh at his drama if those aerospace scenes look like cartoons to them.

Reading between the lines, I honestly felt, when she wrote the script for this drama, she clearly wanted more aerospace scenes and more time to build up the plot for QJJ and YT to develop their relationship. My interpretation of this drama thus far? Both the games and even the aerospace stuff are just plot devices. The game is a bridge for them to meet together after 10 long years. The aerospace industry was used by Gu Man to build context for all the problems that YT is facing. The game part will appeal to game lovers and aerospace part to viewers with technical background. But the real juice of this drama is still the romance between QJJ and YT. Those plot devices just make the romance sweeter, and prevent YAMG from becoming a high school rom-com.

If you are done with E12, only two more episodes to go and all the games stuff will be gone. The producer spent a lot making all those animation stuff. They need to show some commercial to recover their costs or make some money. Only fair. But soon, the game will be gone. Will all about about the relationship between our two leads.

Not sure how familiar you are with the Chinese entertainment industry, but Yang Yang and Reba are two of the brightest shinning stars. So, as far as acting is concerned, we need not be conerned.

Maria, don't feel so sad. It is somewhat like this when a drama is first aired. It looks messy. But gradually, we will sort things. Some could be haters in disguise, coming here to sow discord. Just a matter of time we identify them and manage them civily. They will not be here for too long.

Yeah. I read. I know what you mean.