WK1

You mean even now, the rating for TLB in Douban is only 6.1??

Not very likely. Wu Wei got the role in TLB due to a stroke of luck. Some might even call it destiny, since he did so well, that we cannot imagine who else could play AS better than him. But, like they say, lightning seldom strikes twice. If it does, he really must be one lucky guy. Right now, frontrunner to be the ML is Gong Sun and Xiao Zhan, am I right??

I keep getting giddy. Too used to rotating head left to Right, while reading. So, can only read limited pages at a time, if Right to Left

That could very well happen. I think this director is very sensitive to this. If no kisses for the 1st couple, he will want to keep the same for 2nd couple.

Mujin and Mimi were not the main characters, so less sensitive.

But did Rosy and Ning do kisses in their previous dramas? I did not watch enough of their dramas to notice this. I did watch Love of Thousand years. Cannot remember if Lusi had any kiss scenes there

True. I am perferctly fine with either option myself.

This is hardly suprising. She has legends of fans all across Asia. You know, if she could speak English fluently, she can even even be a global star like Fan Bingbing. She needs to score big in a movie, besides doing well in dramas.

That is good! That is good! I know a lot of Korean stars actually donate their own money to the causes they believe in. She does that well? Maybe she does and it is not reported? They should. Will be meaningful as well.

Here is my 2nd thought. A topc under Recent Discussions just to discuss the manhua may not be what most of us want. We already watched the drama and watched it so many times. Even if we discuss the manhua, inevitably or subconsciously, we will end up comparing it with the drama.

Maybe we just keep it here, but keep our discussions to compare and contrast, and not talk anything solely about the manhua?

And one day, when the discusson reaches sufficient number of comments, someone can just summarise everything and put it as a new topic under Recent Discussion?

Persoanlly, I do not have a habit to go there. Just afraid I will miss out any compare and contrast kind of discussion.

Again, just my opinion.

I thought of this as well. But, I was just afraid very few will go there. And some who habitually come here may want to read our discussion as well. And, if our discussion can somehow link the two, I think most people would not mind to just keep it here.


Just my thoughts

Thus far, I find the Changge in the manhua rather similar to the Changge in the drama. She is smart in many sense, values friendship with Mimi, just like in the drama. She is slightly more vicious the manhua, that I can also understand.

The manhua is just a drawing. They cannot show Dilraba to be so vicious in the drama. It may ruin her career, as some viewers cannot separate the character an actress play and the actress herself.

While many manhua readers said there is very romance in the manhua, I would say this is generally true. Yet, I sensed a strong hint that toward the end of the manhua, Changge was already starting to like AS. But, the manhua ended or took break and Xia Da, our author, could not continue her project. Changge did not say outright, that she likes or loves him, but her actions did. And sometimes, action speakes louder than words. And certain actions express love in a way no amount of words can.

I think they changed lots of stuff, when they adapted this. So many, I sometimes wonder if any kind of comparison between the two can be fair. They did not show many things that were in the manhua, but the drama added a lot to it as well, and very likely made the drama more appealling to a wider audience. Like, for instance, and this has been pointed out many times, AS found out that CS is a girl at the riverbank at E5, rather than at the Temple.

They needed to show more romance in the drama, or no one will watch this, or far less number of people will watch this.

Just look at the number of people who come in here and ask, is there romance in this drama? Lots

So, in the drama, they kept Changge's character pretty much the same. AS's character pretty much the same. They added more romance; extended the role of Mimi. Added the Leyan character, where there was none at all in the manhua. They extended the story, from where it ended in the manhua. They changed some of the subplots here and there, but kept faithful to the manhua.

The ending few drawings between AS and CG were quite touching. They both wanted each other to live well. Xia Da did not put words in their mouths, to make them utter, "I love you." or "I like you". But you will need to be blind not to see that they cared for each other. Perhaps it is love that is not of the romantic variety, but still love that says I care for you and I want you to live long and live well.

AS discovered that CG was a girl far too late (in the manhua). Xia Da could not continue her story. If she did, I suspect she may write more romantic scenes between the two. Perhaps the drama is Xia Da's way of saying, yes, I really do want these two individuals to end up living happily ever after. That is why she gave her blessing to this drama adaptation of her work

I still have great difficulty trying to read it from right to left.

For those wanting to discuss the manhua, how should we do it? We should mindul, this page is focused on the drama, and not on the manhua, even if the manhua is the source material. We don't really want to overdo it, to cause any distraction to people who came here for the drama.

If anything, our discussion should perhaps lead us and others to a greater appreciation/undestanding of the drama rather than lessen our appreciation or understanding of it?

We also need to be careful not to put down the manhua. There are some manhua lovers here, and we might hurt their feelings, if we tear it apart or make it look like a piece of inferior work, because it is not

Discussion on the manhua, how it helps us appreciate TLB even more

Oh, sorry! Yah, tucking them behind her ears would make more sense than having the urge to pull her hair. But, those two strands are rather long, for a quite a number of scenes. So, I am not sure what SoHooked really meant.

If, in the drama, they tucked the two strands behind her ears, may not look nice. And because they are so long, they will just fall off from her ears, and will end up with what we saw, which is those two strands by the side.

Maybe SoHooked is saying, they looked so cute, there is just the urge to pull those two strands of hair.

Does she just raise funds for these causes? Does she also contribute her own money to these causes? Or engage in activities to help them? Maybe given her career, no time to actually go help hearing imparied children, but perhaps a video to show her visiting hearing impaired children, or visiting some schools? She could certainly do those kind of stuff in between filmin a drama or a commercial.

Oh, I am just slightly fortunate than you. Only just. Because I still like to watch this on computer, cause I can multi tasks and switch between watching and doing other stuff on my PC, whilst watching this on TV means I usually cannot do other things.

For many scenes, they do not really make much of difference. But those iconic scenes, like some of the scenes you mentioned, they really do make a big difference. The feeling is very different. Totally different experience, from a visual and audio standpoint. Much much higher quality. Like you said, just amazing feeling.

Just found out. Mine is a 65 inch 4K TV

What Reba do for all these causes will make her a unique actress. Not just caring for money and fame, but worthy social causes. There are too many out there, so focusing on a few that really mean a lot to her is a smart move. I think this comes from her heart. She did not do this to gain publicity.

And whatever she has done has clearly touched her fans in China, and so they followed in her footsteps. More money will just mean more resources for all these organisations to do even more things the causes that they are fighting for.

So 4K is even higher than 1080p?

The title of this drama is The Long Ballad. Just a direct translation from Chinese to English. One may not think that Long Ballad is actually the name of a person. But most people already know that this drama is an adaptation of the original manhua, and Changge is actually the name of the main protaganist in the drama

In the manhua, the story is therefore about the adventures of Changge. What she went through in life and how that changed her and the people around her.

When they adapted this to drama, that has remained the main focus: her adventures and what she learned from those and how they changed her.

But, this being a drama, people do want to see drama. No drama of this genre can survive in the marketplace, if there is zero romance.

So, while romance is not the main focus, the screenwriters are very very good. They made the romance portion flowed with the main plot. So, there is more romance here than in the manhua. And the romance side of it flowed seamlessly along with the main plot of showing all her adventures. If I were to rank the importance of themes that were in focus, character growth will rank number 1. And romance will be a close number 2