Xiang83

She released four studio albums under Polydor Records, and one of her albums is "Pray".

I'll leave you with "Running In The Sun":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzOvfcoXT3w

Oh yes, the infamous Honda Civic ad she was in with Leonardo di Caprio. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFxfxuNrXv8

I don't know what is the level of interest for J-Ent articles on MDL, and Mizuhira-san was the spark for this article... So stuff happens, as you can see, heh. Glad you like this!

Dude, chill. CNY is coming. I definitely want to rest my mind for at least two days😆😆😆

Another amazing actress (Matsuyuki Yasuko) is a spy. But for which side? I'm not telling you :p

Check out her scenes below!

https://x.com/suikoden_drama/status/2020331754775851511

MDL has published two recent news articles I put together, whereby I wrote about 'Blades Of The Guardians' (a wuxia epic in the Lunar New Year box office showdown happening next week and premiering on 17 February) and 'Kitakata Kenzo: Suikoden' (J-drama adaptation based on multi-volume award-winning novel by a well-respected veteran novelist in Japan, and premiering this Sunday on 15 February).

You can consider checking these out:

https://news.mydramalist.com/article/cinematic-wuxia-epic-blades-of-the-guardians-premieres-on-february-17

https://news.mydramalist.com/article/suikoden-star-studded-cast-in-drama-adaptation-of-award-winning-novel-premieres-15-february

This is a voluntary article as a labour of love, since someone raised the topic politely to me.
99.5% of articles are the domain of one account, whose name you see on almost every article for the past year.

I am new to this. From my POV, I appreciate one account working so hard resulting in articles published everyday, so I have time to create something I enjoy :)
rugged is a co-author I enjoy working with, for the first time.

EXILE members Takahiro and Kenchi Tachibana are amongst those who were granted access to the exclusive preview of the drama, which happened in advance of the official airing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0EepaDsAnU

EXILE Takahiro said he was overwhelmed by the visual beauty of the drama, and lauded the outstanding performances of the cast. His heart is captivated by a continuous stream of powerful scenes, fleeting yet beautiful, alongside various depicted stories of individuals.

"I became so drawn in that I even started feeling as if I could change the world too-" *laughs*

Since it has been quite some time since he last saw Kitakata-Sensei, being able to greet him in person was a great honour to EXILE Takahiro.

His final wishes are for viewers to enjoy 'Kitakata Kenzo: Suikoden' while "fully immersing yourself in Kitakata-Sensei's worldview."

It is going to be more than cool! Oda Yuji mentioned it was very cold shooting in December, and he also said (I am paraphrasing here) that he hopes to touch and inspire teenagers (since this is a drama about rebelling against an unjust system).

For the names of Oushin and others in this article, I included links to short video clips of each of them, as released on the official x.com drama page.

An MDL article for this drama has been published yesterday night:

https://news.mydramalist.com/article/suikoden-star-studded-cast-in-drama-adaptation-of-award-winning-novel-premieres-15-february

If you want to know more about the drama, the article plus details in the comments of that article will share more (including the view of EXILE Takahiro who was able to be part of the exclusive Japanese preview of the drama). Note that if you go to the official website for this drama, many glorious visuals can be found there but the site is graphic-heavy so the homepage can take at least 30 seconds to load.

I'm uncertain if this drama of 7 episodes is only covering the first volume of 19 volumes. The other factor is whether this is going to be the only drama produced, pertaining to Kitakata-Sensei's 'Suikode'n.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, salt was an important source of revenue. Anything pertaining to its sale and processing is strictly controlled. The likes of Chao Gai and others within our merry band of rebels will be paying attention to this specific item.

One could say salt will influence the course of this story, as per the little trivia gem dropped by the official drama's x.com page yesterday: https://x.com/suikoden_drama/status/2021418918393344494

Glad you enjoyed the article!

You can also go to Netflix to submit a request for this drama to be subtitled. Go to help.netflix.com/en/titlerequest

1) Enter the name of the show or movie you want subtitled in the "Title Suggestion" fields.

2) Add Details: While there is no dedicated "subtitle" box, you can use the suggestion field to indicate you are requesting subtitles (e.g., "[Title Name] - Please Add English Subtitles").

You're welcome! This article would not have happened, until you raised the necessary for my consideration.

The official website is graphic-heavy so it can lag when uploading the necessary home page. Meanwhile, here's 48 images that will be much easier to enjoy from the drama: https://natalie.mu/eiga/gallery/news/649987/2717215

There is a fan-subber for this. Another option for subtitles is to raise this to the attention of Netflix. They will assess the premise of subtitling it, if there is enough demand.

I'm summarising the method of doing so to a viewer above.

The "Unclouded Soul" is an S++ budget-production-level investment by IQiyi and Youku. The screenplay is based on the writing of the Director for "The Knockout", whose previous crime-thriller drama in a totally different genre generated an average of 200+ million effective views per episode across all three channel categories (not just online streaming platforms like IQiyi). That drama also broke the highest IQiyi's heat index at 11,800 to make IQiyi history, with "This Thriving Land" coming second in IQiyi's heat index history for crossing the 11,000 heat index.

"The Knockout" surpassed more than 400 million daily views on IQiyi, also reaching a high of 3.8% for peak viewership index on CCTV-8. Articles have been written about this: https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/iqiyi-presented-series-the-knockout-achieves-record-breaking-popularity-in-china-2023.

That said, xianxia and romance are genres that the Director is previously unknown for with the domestic audience, even though he directed a crime drama smash hit. He took at least 10 years to finish writing the screenplay for "The Unclouded Soul", if I'm not wrong.

Older mandarin-speaking viewers with at least 20+ years of C-Ent experience do not associate success in one genre as automatically translating into another genre. In fact, we became pensive to hear of this attempt by the Director, who should have gotten other veteran screenwriters in xianxia genre to vet his screenplay plus the version that eventually was made into this drama. International viewers are least likely to realise this. Directing and screenplay writing are different fields, and it becomes very dicey when genres are totally different.

If one can evaluate the viewership numbers across different ages, that will give the best indication of appeal statistics for this drama. The category with the least viewers will definitely be the older viewers of a certain age. and above

There are three demons, including Xiao Yao's role as the Azure Dragon being the fourth demon. If people are familiar with texts such as "Classic of Mountain and Seas", the four demons are huge turn-offs for being completely unrecognisable. I couldn't stomach the rendition of Tengshe, legendary divine assistant to Nüwa.

The Azure Dragon is associated with Protection, and is one of the four symbols of Chinese Constellations. When using creatures of great symbolism aiding or wielding divine power in Chinese mythology, you can turn them into cartoons but the worst insult is to caricature and diminish them beyond recognition. This is not a concern in modern dramas, but would be unsuitable for historical dramas, and uncertain if the Director was aware of this.

The cast did their best (and I'm sure criticisms also surfaced in that aspect), but the screenplay has massive issues across all three lifetimes (the least problematic is the final lifetime). Examples include romance between Hongye and Xiao Yao being too rushed feelings-wise within the first ten episodes, Pian Pian's change of character towards Xiao Yao isn't believable, and the drama ending is too cruel on Bingzhu and Hongye.

Hongye is punished in every lifetime, no matter what he does. He winds up sealing himself for eternity, a sacrifice that is questionable in its necessity because the flaws and evils of humans have existed even before this Kunlun Mirror came into existence. There is no redemption for him. Knowing his backstory and why he came to be the way it is only made it more terrible to realise that he cannot change any outcomes. I was so horrified for HMH's role (and I'm not even a fan of his) that I thought he had been forced to do this drama, which I would have frankly rescued him from participating in.

Acting standards of supporting cast is a mixed bag. Wang Duo did well, but that assistant demon to Hongye within the first two episodes really got on my nerves. Considering I couldn't stand Wang Hongyi's character Qing Cheng in SaB (and his character was so hated that he made a weibo post at one point proclaiming his character was going to kick the bucket), and that was only because of the writing and production team across several episodes... I actually reconsidered that view because this demon in this drama "Xiao Yao" is the most annoying demon I have ever encountered in a C-drama, partially due to the unpalatably bad acting.

Xiao Yao is understandably distraught, but when she goes to a certain time period of the past, viewers are confused as to whether she is living in a re-loop due to her consciousness taking over her physical body at that time to console herself while Hongye is still sealed away, or whether Xiao Yao is going back in time to try to change events (which is the story that people would have wanted to watch).

Viewers can claim 2ML is more developed in terms of complexity, compared to ML drama-wise. ML at times felt more like a plot device and not as well-fleshed out as 2ML. This is primarily a problem with the screenplay, not the directing or acting. The writing is the biggest weakness of the drama, because the characters are affected, especially when it comes to consistency such as Bing Zhu's decisions about demons.

Needing to use the book that came out after this drama, or anything else, to try to make the ending positive means the drama didn't succeed in making the ending what it should be to viewers.

You'd have to watch this drama without an inner critic and in total ignorance of certain Chinese texts to enjoy it. Your friend didn't do that. Any negative reviews on MDL can be downvoted as "not helpful". At some point, I understand viewers didn't want to comment on this drama page after being constantly bashed for anything remotely disagreeable from the public consensus of a very-vocal few, then only shared views away from this page. Hence you see what you see, comments-wise. But that doesn't stop them from rating episodes.

I have not rated this drama at all.

Dai Xu as Ao Hen is another demon I couldn't watch, but he is a golden supporting actor and did wonderfully as 2ML in "Love Between Lines" and hence trended massively on weibo at one point.

HMH's other drama "Glory" where he is also ML aired at the same time as "The Unclouded Soul", and is a totally different type of drama. The writing for ML in ""Glory" is much better in my opinion, character-wise. Some have wondered why the schedule for "Glory" was uneven, at times airing only one episode a day. I came by to take a look at something after someone asked me one thing, and saw your comment.

This is my superficial views for "Glory" also covering the creative team shortly after four episodes aired, which I watched: https://kisskh.at/772283-ming-men-shi-jia#comment-24642016

I also put together an article for MDL recently, about the not-yet-aired movie "Blades Of The Guardians" which will be in a box-office showdown for the Lunar New Year: https://news.mydramalist.com/article/cinematic-wuxia-epic-blades-of-the-guardians-premieres-on-february-17

I leave all this for you to make your own guesses. The title of this drama in Mandarin is "Xiao Yao", not the "Unclouded Soul". Tan Songyun is the focal character, not anyone else.

When you recommend a drama, always look at the reviews that come across as being able to dissect a drama in multiple aspects (language fluency or not is not an issue). That will be your best indication.

Bei Popo is a terrific character, being willing to run errands and do anything with messages and more. When she's not making me laugh out loud, she's also touchingly endearing in sharing stoicism or tartness.

Cen Jintian is growing on me, just like Li Yunxi (kudos to the actors in these roles!) Episode 9 is a wonderful amalgamation of everyone in it, seamlessly shifting between moments of seriousness, comedy, and scheming. I can't find myself disliking any of the characters for being fleshed-out as people, including Xiahou Bo and Xie Yong'er and the Empress Dowager. Episode 9 paused on a perfect cliffhanger.

As to episode 10... Awwww.

To see different perspectives carefully conveyed and interwoven, by turns sad and sweet- the transition of scenes from 13:16 to 13:17 onwards is wonderful. I'm reminded of the final minutes of episode 4 of "Glory" because the combination of camerawork, script, acting and editing is excellent. Xiao Tiancai has made himself unforgettable. I can feel what Xie Yong'er is thinking and believing.

An umbrella earnestly extended, concern and herbs- The night does not feel so lonely.

When a creative team works well together, a drama like this is easy to binge. I praised the powerhouse creative team for "Glory" after watching the first four episodes when that drama had just aired, and the creative team here is also heartily laudable for 10 episodes of intricately-connected emotional layers and laughs. Making a story look easy to tell and eager to absorb always has me in awe of amazing teamwork across so many different departments. 2026 has been enjoyable for dramas. This far, "How Dare You!" is definitely carving out a special niche in the transmigration genre while skilfully guiding me into a splendid buffet of moods to experience.

I will always have a soft spot for Chi Yun. His character theme song hits different within the first thirty episodes versus the final ten episodes.

Drama-Chi Yun is an improvement on novel-Chi Yun for me. Ao Ziyi shared 9 clips in a weibo post from his account, of different scenes where he's on wires, the wind machine is working overtime, and he is wearing the excellently-considered outfits of costume designer Huang Wei while conveying lines and specific actions (you don't need a weibo account to be able to access these clips, and these are not spoilers):

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5226487967912153

His enthusiasm, dedication and professionalism is impressive!

2026 will be a big year for Ai Mi, given the news and expectations.

Yesterday Pote posted from their official weibo account about a limited- edition cover on a red packet of Pote x AiMi, with only 713 packets available, so fastest fingers first!

Only two ways to get this red packet. Pote will allow the public to try and obtain this red packet tomorrow, 9 February, at 12 noon.

[ 祝你马年「米」满，心想事成、顺遂常伴！] - They know how to make a prosperous lovely pun using her name in well-wishes XD

Her signature is on the red packet, with her image vibrantly embracing the chic young lady that she is.

https://m.weibo.cn/status/5263655802510097

Goodbai, the casual chic lifestyle clothing brand started in 2021 by Bai Jingting, also gave her a shout-out and thanks from their official weibo account for wearing certain items of clothing:

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5245292364695038

I don't know who will do a fansub. This MDL friend of mine might be able to do so, if enough people ask and if his schedule can accommodate it: https://kisskh.at/profile/ruggedsource

True, but I must admit TJR's portrayal of Gong Yuanzhi's tender affection mixed with fiercely intense devotion towards his older brother Gong Shang Jue while displaying almost-petty dislike (of course, because GYZ is the emotional equivalent of a teenager in MJTY) for Shangguan Qian wasn't helping XD

And on that note, Zhang Yunlong and Cheng Lei's interactions are nothing short of hilarious: https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5263029265505041

Throw in Ao Ziyi, and things take on another dimension of hilarity: https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5262795887346552

When not being funny together, Zhang Yunlong and Cheng Lei get along veryveryvery well: https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5246779730956750

Alright, off to watch episodes 7 and 8 of "How Dare You!"

That one call of how TJR addresses his Gege since MJTY has probably fuelled at least 90% of fics on A03 and elsewhere about Gong Yuanzhi and Gong Shangjue 😆😆😆😆

I will pause with these four episodes, and continue with episodes 5 to 8 tomorrow *stomachache* 😆😆.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚.𖥔 ݁ ˖ִ ࣪⚝₊ ⊹˚

These two will never stop being funny and adorable together in any situation, and I adored them in MJTY. Everytime TJR goes "哥哥～哥哥～" 😍😆🤣🤩

https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:5202068372652044

Here's Tian Jiarui having a video call with Cheng Lei in November 2025, then being all adorable about whether his 'older brother' missed him and whatnot XD: https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5234065118596651

People are dying with laughter all over weibo, sharing clips from "How Dare You!"

Thank you for also sharing more details of how everyone is encouraging each other. It's great to see artists supporting each other like this, and I hope fans will follow suit too!

I think the cast list on this drama page needs to be updated in details, such as the actor for Xu Yao.