Xiang83

"The Truth Within" was refreshing, to have a FL like Cya Liu Ya-se. Skilled emoting meant LYX, Jiang Qilin and Cya Liu shared a great buffet of emotions and tension. I was very happy!

And now it's breath-taking robes, riveting action with plot-focused storylines, and unforgettable characterisations!

Speaking of robes, my favourite for him this far:

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5292442825008615

Here's a montage, which includes him in those robes:

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5282622332997168

((Mao Xiao Tong has two awesome dramas that haven't aired since filming was completed more than four years ago, but I want to see her in them, as I've enjoyed her acting ever since "Princess Wei Young": 平妖传 with Chen Ruo Xuan, and 风起大漠 with Zhang Ruoyun))

That is the link to the 9.30 am official weibo account post sharing the official trailer of 1 minute 28 seconds for this drama.

Hopefully someone changes the timing.

Frankly, not understanding mandarin will result in 40% of primary context being lost by a viewer.

Not understanding Buddhism plus Mandarin means at least 60% will be missed.

《水龙吟》is a lyric meter name, also known as the name of a ci tune ("name of a ci tune" is the description used in some English translations of the classical chinese literary texts pertaining to ci poetry). 《水龙吟》can also be understood as《鼓笛慢》as per the name of the lyric meter pattern in ci poetry of the Song Dynasty from my initial comment.

Su Shi’s “Water Dragon Chant-Rhyming Zhang Zhifu’s poem on willow catkins” ie《水龙吟·次韵章质夫杨花词》which I mentioned above is hugely lauded as a well-known poem.

The first part of 《水龙吟·次韵章质夫杨花词》ie 水龙吟 as a lyric meter name also has other names eg 《鼓笛慢》(Slowness of Drum and Flute), in which the original name of《鼓笛慢》was by Ouyang Xiu, a renowned writer and leader of the literary reform movement in the Northern Song Dynasty. Of the eight literary masters in the Tang and Song Dynasty (this includes Su Shi), Ouyang Xiu is perceived as the greatest of them.

A story goes that in the third year of the Yuanfeng era (reign of Emperor Shenzong), Su Shi wanted to create what he thought would suit his style best for a flute. His style of ci poetry leans towards the heroic unrestrained style of haofang and he is also seen as a pioneer of this style. His work tends to incorporate the imagery of nature and musical instruments such as the flute. His work is recognised for being able to better portray the emotional intensity of instruments, such as the flute. Su Shi thought the name was inelegant, thus he transformed the original name of 鼓笛慢 into 水龙吟 for his poems.

The following spring in the fourth year of Yuanfeng, his friend Zhang Zhifu sent him a poem "Ode on Willow Catkins", and Su Shi reciprocated with《水龙吟·次韵章质夫杨花词》that is graceful, mournful and exquisitely restrained unlike his usual style. The letter he wrote to Zhang Zhifu is very touching. It is exactly the type of sentiments that this drama touches upon: That which seemed mundane and overlooked undergoes emotional transformation to touch the heart and mind.

https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/Shuilongyin:%20Second%20Rhyme%20to%20Zhang%20Jie's%20Willow%20Catkin%20Poem/1488222

I show this to you, because the title and poem by Su Shi plus its dissection of the poem is well-reflected in one of my favourite songs of WoF known as "Flow of Lament" by Wu Yizhi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQlkN85eG_4

The allegory of the fox-dragon in the official SLY poster is important or to be more exact, the character-evolution of Tang Lici surpassing himself in this journey of embodying ultimate compassion in Buddhism, to transform the original tale of the fox-dragon. To have Tang Lici in the poster alongside the fox-dragon is fitting. The drama title of《水龙吟》 is actually very fitting, once you know a certain story related to Su Shi and the mandarin title of this drama.

“不昧狐龙” is the name of Tang Lici's flute, and it means "cultivate your mind and be not ignorant of evil".

The aspects of the dragon and the name of Tang Lici's flute is an important aspect of Tang Lici's Sound-Killing techniques, as seen in what he unleashes when he fights. This also comes from the other aliases of 水龙吟. Other than《鼓笛慢》, there is also 《小楼连苑》(Small Tower Connected to Garden), 《海天阔处》(Where Sea and Sky Are Wide), etc

"Whispers of Fate" comes nowhere close to capturing even a breath of the meaning of the original drama title, the literary roots, or how the title links to the protagonist's transformative journey.

Which non-mandarin speaker with zero background in chinese classical literature and Buddhism is going to be able to pick up on all this?

In storytelling and all else, "Whispers of Fate" is not an idol drama. The mandarin title clearly sets it apart. But because this drama is a pioneering work, it unfortunately gets lumped in the genre of idol drama.

No more unnecessary baggage for one of China's rare IP actors! He will ace this.

And if he ever does so in future, I'd like seasoned actresses such as Mao Xiao Tong to be the co-stars.

Thank you for sharing about this experience! What a vivid summary! Friends are asking me to catch up (and Chengdu is on the agenda), but it's difficult to match cities and schedules at this point. Mostly likely second half of the year :D

I would have loved to see the Palace of Fallen Jade in the park, but size limitations would make it impossible.

SLY (known as "Whispers of Fate" in English) is considered an idol drama by non-mandarin speakers who assume xuanhuan, xianxia or wuxia longform dramas from China must be an idol drama. That's the easiest understandable mistake to make from the start due to not speaking the language, considering the main and fundamental themes involved for this drama are completely the opposite of the Western world or any Judeo-Christian beliefs.

SLY is very much not an idol drama in storytelling and lessons, and decides to make romance not a main point of a complex character-development story rooted heavily in Taoism and Buddhism, but illustrates the importance of different forms of love over idol-drama fan-service romance. People who came from non-idol-C-drama backgrounds or have a literary background in those themes will appreciate this drama.

A-Shui is but one example of what SLY proves. I am grateful that this drama clearly highlights to me who the mature and non-mature viewers are, especially fake feminists who have no trouble showcasing unconscious men having their personal boundaries violated as profile pictures, thereby bluffing other people using such incidents as acceptable romance to be promoted.

Oh yes, sockpuppet accounts will always be sockpuppet accounts. They always give themselves away, such as the 5-March-created sockpuppet account advocating creation of sockpuppet accounts to others:

https://kisskh.at/761731-the-resurrection-painted-skin#comment-25937848

Thank you for this!

I've been missing He Lan Dou!

Unfortunately, a mod told me not to upload submissions for vertical dramas for 2 months as this site undergoes further improvements, so I cannot add this to He Lan Dou's filmography.

Mao Xiao Tong is an actress whose roles I always enjoy, but several of her previously-shot dramas have not aired eg "The Fated General" with Zhang Ruoyun D:

"Changan Paper and Ink Records" had better ensure the finished script is solidly compelling, if they want LYX onboard.

I wish he had sung《壁上观》at the Star Awards:

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5293366709059887

I have been very busy offline, as my late reply indicates XD

I wrote a third article for MDL (latest one is about the upcoming historical period dramas of Zhang Yunlong with Ju Jingyi and Esther Yu respectively):

https://kisskh.at/profile/Xiang83/articles

Those should be fairly good, also because of the novels and changes in adaptation. Working on a fourth article.

Finished "Dream of Golden Years" which is a very-good adaptation of a novel, and happily stuck on "Beyond Time's Gaze", a donghua adaptation of an Er Gen novel with 19 episodes out (I shared three episodes that are freely available from Youku in the link below):

https://kisskh.at/profile/Xiang83/feeds/BjJqv8iK

Currently rewatching "Princess Weiyoung". I missed Luo Jin and Tiffany Tang. Watched "Blades of The Guardians" three times in the cinema, and it's been a blast to see it become the top-grossing wuxia movie globally :D

For J-Ent and K-Ent, sadly no recs.

She already acted as a teenage student in a non-idol crime suspense drama which aired in August 2025 more than six months ago, as a student who is bullied and emotionally traumatised by the number of ignorant vicious bullies who talk rubbish about her and try to bully people away from supporting her.

To be more exact without referring to the number of horrible people who shit on her as disgusting bullies clearly having personal issues with themselves but using her for target practise on MDL, such as coming to her page to post rubbish: The non-idol drama is 目之所及 whereby she holds her own within a very strong ensemble cast of non-idol actors including Luo Jin. Luo Jin is one of China's golden princes of TV, and a highly-acclaimed actor. Oh yes, Ai Mi will be joining Beijing Film Academy, which is where Luo Jin also graduated from.

Ai Mi portrays the role of teenage Qu Tong who is emotionally traumatised and bullied, and Wang Zi Wen takes over as the much-older Qu Tong who must deal with present-day circumstances. That drama doesn't allow for idol traffic artists who cannot act or act badly. Very strong realistic nuanced performances are demonstrated by everyone in the drama, including senior supporting actresses and actors.

Portraying a psychologically affected student is done and dusted. She's scored the highest possible for a female candidate at the Beijing Film Academy entrance exams recently this month and is ranked third nationwide, Dior has featured her alongside its three official China brand ambassadors in a newly launched ad today, and Neo Hou has been gushing over her acting skills at the IQiyi World Conference 4 days ago with all sorts of praise.

“我听说是艾米来演谢嘉鱼，我当时就非常的开心，我也非常替她而感到高兴”
“她对于表演中的灵性是非常高的”

He said a lot more than, that given the number of minutes he spoke about her, so here's the tiniest fraction of it.

She doesn't have to act like a middle-aged woman. She's happy achieving her dreams.

Hope you find your mind soon and stop losing it, so you will feel better and won't sound so unhinged :)

Ai Mi is getting hate because people who can't achieve a fraction of what she has accomplished (while concealing their own petty motives in support of their preferred actresses or having unhealthy parasocial relationships with their idol) believe that bullying someone like her is an easy target.

They come to this page or flood other pages and websites to harass people for supporting Ai Mi, spread rubbish about Ai Mi on numerous websites including youtube whenever they can, and don't give a damn about their irresponsible ugly behaviour being unethical and the complete opposite of feminism.

Ai Mi scored a Rising Young Actor award at the Wenrong Awards in November 2025 (most actors and actresses won't achieve that before the age of eighteen, and will never get a Wenrong award in their lifetime), recently ranked 3rd nationwide for the Beijing Film Academy exams and first amongst female candidates (every year BFA gets at least 40,000 applications and accepts one-tenth of that), Neo Hou was protective and supportive and heartily praised her acting capabilities as his FL at the recent IQiyi World Conference (he's been impressed by her since her support role in "Fangs Of Fortune"),

Dior sponsored one of her dresses for that event and has just launched an ad today featuring three of their China Brand Ambassadors while including her in it- Yes, people being losers offline get very bitter about all her achievements, and then use anonymity as cowards to become bullies online at sites such as MDL. Typical story of the mediocre who never win in life.

But she also has supporters growing in numbers, given her humble attitude and a well-nuanced professional performance in "Whispers of Fate" opposite Luo Yunxi, Bai Shu and other older artists.

https://kisskh.at/people/67087-ai-mi#comment-25904892

https://kisskh.at/people/67087-ai-mi#comment-25906320

Today within the recent ten hours, Dior has been promoting a new 30-seconds ad on its weibo account. Features multiple stars such as Dior Brand Ambassadors Yosh Yu Shi, Zhou Ye, and Wang Yuwen, alongside other celebrities including "Dior Friend in China" Sun Anke, plus Ai Mi and Zhou Haoqi... Capturing alluded romance, feelings of love and friendly moments, where sharing is love!

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5291302979903074

For those who cannot access weibo: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vNrchHihaFg

In the lead-up to that ad, Dior made an earlier post with stills of Sun Anke, Ai Mi and Zhou Haoqi:

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5291272781693277

Holding hands and running across the pavement together. Sharing a pair of earpieces.

On 20 April four days ago, one of Ai Mi's dresses was sponsored by Dior for IQiyi World Conference (where she and Neo Hou promoted the upcoming drama "Key To The Phoenix Heart" and also shared their thoughts about each other):

https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309405291195189559391

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5290864765043149

Ai Mi is very loved. Neo Hou has been praising her acting at IQiyi World Conference 4 days ago, disclosed they behave as friends privately rather than big brother and little sister, and also shared how he became very happy back then once he knew Ai Mi had been finalised as his FL in KTTPH. He had seen her acting abilities on the FoF set.

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5289819934557168

MDL is this bubble and an unrealistic echo chamber at times, because whichever ignoramuses shout loudest and hardest and asks a few people to back them up easily gets the wrong idea that their views are reality on this platform and also THE authority outside it. Then when they increase in numbers but are still very far from the majority that they assume themselves to be, you can see the ugly bullying coming out as they egg each other on, rooted in jealousy and insecurities.

People with personal issues should fix themselves first, instead of trying to ruin someone else by calling for boycotts. It's even more shocking when women try to destroy fellow women because of jealousy and an inability to handle reality. Such virtue-signaling behaviour to camouflage what really drives fellow female haters is petty and disgusting. A broken clock with a cuckoo system is still a deluded unreliable clock, even if the alarm goes off twenty times a day.

Between scoring third overall nationwide for the entrance exams of Beijing Film Academy (and ranked first amongst all female candidates), after winning Rising Young Actor at the Wenrong Awards in December 2025, her future is very bright. I shared more details here, especially from her acting teacher's vlog:

https://kisskh.at/people/67087-ai-mi#comment-25904892

Ever since starting out at the age of 6, she has gone through a healthy variety of roles and trained with many different directors. Her CV will be outstanding in order to achieve her dream, after more than 10 years.

Here is the Beijing Film Academy Prep vlog by her teacher, who accompanied her to the set of KTTPH in July 2025 (with English subtitles):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UMc14X1obo

During shooting for KTTPH whenever Ai Mi had the time, she would be busy preparing for the exams of the BFA. Even during filming for "A-Chan", she was busy rehearsing and practising for the possible hurdles of the BFA including vocal training, dance movements, etc

In short, Ai Mi's schedule was packed to the gills until the exams.

"The Beijing Film Academy has always been your dream and our only goal."

After passing the online preliminary test and after filming wrapped for A-Chan, preparations continued. And finally, she has reached her dream.

Congratulations, Ai Mi! Her star shines very brightly after winning an award for Rising Young Actor at the Wenrong Awards in November 2025, which domestic viewers already know after her convincing exposure to many viewers from October to November 2025 as Shui Duopo in SLY to comfortably match the intensity of Luo Lunxi, Bai Shu and other cast members with grace, humour and finely nuanced emoting. With this result for BFA under her belt- How many artists in C-Ent can claim to have the same achievements?

Ai Mi can and should ignore jealous virtue-signaling haters who can't and will never achieve a fraction of what she has worked so hard for. She will be gaining many supporters along the way (including Neo Hou who exclaimed about how very happy he was to hear Ai Mi being cast as his FL in KTTPH and gushed over her acting abilities at IQiyi World Conference on 20 April this month, 4 days ago).

Dior has been generous to her, ensuring she would wear one of their dresses to the IQiyi World Conference. Dior also features her amongst a select number of celebrities such as their three official Brand Ambassadors, in the new 30-seconds ad which just launched today.

The leads don't turn stupid after falling in love. Give it a go :)

Amazing fun during the airing of this drama, on this page. Even disagreements were sorted out civilly. It was very fun to interact with you!

What are you watching now?

FL has amnesia but it doesn't make her stupid. One refreshing plus of this drama is that the leads do not become stupid due to love.

Her memories of who tried to kill her returns speedily enough, after she makes the correct deductions. If I'm not wrong, by episode 12 she should remember.

The novel is quite different from the drama, in terms of expectations. The screenwriters did well in adapting and improving the plot and several characters of the novel for the drama, save one character. I enjoyed more than half the novel, but that is also because my favourite character in the novel is someone I classify as unusual.

I'd advise you to try 30 chapters and decide for yourself.

Since I only intend to give one semi-detailed reply for others to see, pertaining to your comment about "Any idea who these people are and their motivation? I suspect it's competitors employing online trolls. It's a very unethical practice." -> That will suffice. Have a great weekend :)

Sockpuppet account, why didn't Tang Lici react well to A-Shui planting her lips on him when he is unconscious? Why doesn't Tang Lici like his personal boundaries being violated, in more than one way?

How many males like strangers doing so to them, without their consent? Why are you leaving out this context, when referring to Tang Lici finally reacting badly to A-Shui at one point?

You also obviously didn't watch Renegade Immortal, to write stuff like this:

[ ... Also, many times when I see A Shui on the screen, I super-impose the FL of Renegade Immortal onto her. Too often I thought to myself, that's not Miss A Shui, that's Wan'Er from Renegade Immortal. Their characters are too similar.]

Azure is still waiting for your answer after refuting you, in the forum thread that you started and edited on 20 November 2025. From February 15 2026 until today 24 April, still no answer from you!

https://kisskh.at/755725-shui-long-yin/discussions/146464-whispers-of-fate-is-too-similar-to-renegade-immortal

Why can't you accept Fang Ci being happy with her white light? Oh yeah, because romance must be everything. Nevermind what Fang Ci truly needed and it wasn't Tang Lici, to be happy and whole. You're not a feminist, and you're doing a poor job of pretending to care for other women. When someone doesn't want another person to do things to them that they don't like, respect those boundaries. Tang Lici has been consistent for 40 episodes about his priorities, and the thing that offends you most is because those priorities don't mesh with your obsession.

Romance doesn't cure all things, trauma is very sensitive, and it shouldn't be bandaged over with romantic love. I'm sure people would agree on this. Good luck if you finally manage to move beyond episode 25 of Whispers of Fate- Or was it episode 20?

Oh wait, you also never answered me as of 7 March, so I repeat myself:

Come to think of it... If an account is promoting piracy, there's a good chance the account didn't watch Whispers of Fate on a proper platform like Mango or IQiyi, isn't it?

Hunter2022, did you watch Whispers of Fate? If so, did you watch on any of the official platforms? Or did you pirate the episodes, since you're openly advocating IP piracy?