Hollywood is remaking Disney movies. China is remaking Taiwanese dramas. It seems like very few people in the entertainment industry are coming up with original ideas these years.
I’ve seen most of the already released remakes (Summer’s Desire, Forget you Remember Love, You are my Destiny - couldn’t get through meteor garden) and most of them just make me think they don’t live up to the originals. Maybe it’s nostalgia (because honestly the quality of old TW dramas was shaky at best lol. Super over dramatic stories and acting, but people loved it) the newer versions just seem to try to modernize, which is fine, but it loses the charm that the originals have.
Personally of the three I’ve seen only Forget You Remember Love was decent to me. Not great by any means as I was not a fan of how they make all the storylines so “easy”, but eh.
You are my Destiny, I just don’t believe the romantic relationship between the leads (even though I loved them in the eternal love). Yes the drama is more modernized and realistic but it feels too much like their relationship is based on dependency (whereas the original I really saw them falling in love)
I’ll likely still watch the remakes, but yeah just my two cents
Ohmygod I have the same exact thought. The accident in the Taiwanese version can be considered a mistake but this…
I haven’t given up completely but definitely not following it as much as I thought I would. I’m on episode 18 now so i’m gonna try and finish the other episodes soon
Ohmygod I have the same exact thought. The accident in the Taiwanese version can be considered a mistake but this…
I've been a bit busy and haven't seen the recent episodes, but yeah. There was something about the original TW drama that just felt more cute to me? I think that even though I like the leads in this show, I feel like they aren't as "fan service" as they were in the eternal love. In FTLY, it was clear that the FL was falling in love with the ML. but here it just feels more like she depends on him. I guess that's a type of love, but idk.
I think this drama for me is a bit meh so far. I'm still watching, but I'm honestly such a fan of the original TW version (even though it was definitely unrealistic and a bit over the top, but so were most dramas in the early 2000s).
I do appreciate that they've modernized this version and made it a bit more realistic. BUT I honestly really don't like the plot change of how they accidentally sleep together and get pregnant. It's more realistic, sure, but it honestly really just makes the two of them actually shitty people. Guy is sad that his girlfriend stands him up again, gets drunk and sleeps with another girl. Meh.
So far decent. I feel like Johnny Huang ends up playing similar characters - forward and a bit pushy, but he is still decent. Dilraba is so far pretty good I think. Her acting feels different in this drama, so far so good. I hope the plot is decent and doesn’t fall flat
I’m so far pleasantly surprised by this drama. Idk what I was expecting going into it, but it’s seriously perfectly cute and funny. Only at 10 eps now so we’ll see how the end is when it finishes airing. Hopefully it’s still cute and adorable.
The original online story was a BL, but in the drama they definitely take away as much "romantic" relationship and make it more of a very strong friendship / soulmate connection
This drama is honestly so cute. The story is also a good mix of traditional rom-com story lines but adds the extra twists to make it original. Hopefully the rest will be just as good as the first 10 eps
So many new, young actors ^_^ Definitely want to watch Legend of Awakening. Chen Fei Yu is beautiful and pretty talented for such a young actor. Also I'm skeptical about Yang Zi and Kris Wu's drama. It seems like just pretty faces, but I'm sure it'll be super popular
I can definitely recommend some, but it depends on your preferences!
Cutesy dramas: boss and Me, Love O2O, A Love So Beautiful, Put your head on my shoulder, Lucky’s First Love, Skate Into Love, Le Coup de Fourde, go go squid
So far a fairly cutesy drama. I’m expecting it to get more serious later on. I am wondering why they changed the original story and act as if we wouldn’t notice though. The part with feng jiu going to taichen palace would have been well before Bai qian’s son would have been brought to qing qiu, so not much sense for a li to be there when feng jiu returns.
Appreciate the love guys haha. I haven't checked this website in a while so didn't realize that people had replied to it. Glad I'm not the only one who felt this way because after this show, the male actor was pretty popular (which I don't have a problem with) but this story was just nonsense for me.
Just finished watching and honestly not a fan of the ending. I get why so many people had to die, but there were some that died for no reason, and the ending for some characters was just meh.
1) Male lead did NOT have to die. He wasn't severely injured and if Dong Fang Shi could pull both BuQi and Chen Yu out of the hole, there's no reason why Chen Yu couldn't have tried a little harder instead of just giving up. Again. He wasn't SEVERELY injured. 2) Mo Ruo Fei - Glad s/he died by the end of it, but I really don't like how they changed the story for this character by the end. Throughout the drama MRF was very loyal and cared about HBQ. Yes, s/he sided with his mother after she poisoned HBQ, but throughout it all, MRF did still care about HBQ and wanted to right his mother's wrongs. Now that the king killed his mom, he could care less about everyone around him? No way. MRF betrayed her multiple times and at the very end willingly tried to get HBQ killed to -potentially- get revenge on the king. Meh. 3) So many people died in the last episode, that it really took away any sentimental value for it. Really only Xiao Xia (HBQ's guard) got a meaningful death (kind of, I'm still annoyed that she didn't even actually die for HBQ but for a fake HBQ).
Overall, I did like the drama. But it definitely wasn't a favorite just because of the story choices the writers made. Literally 11 episodes where the ML and FL are separated (and they were definitely the heart of the story for me). I skipped through most of those episodes and really could care less about them. It was way too long and the story got really boring (almost dropped the drama at this point).
I also really didn't care for Dong Fang Shi. Yes, he loved her and was trying to "protect her" but even up till the end, seeing how sad and unhappy she was, he still forced her to stay by his side (literally tied her up so she wouldn't run). He -barely- redeemed himself the first time his grandfather tried to take HBQ and he was willing to sacrifice himself for her. But again, he played the typical "I'm doing this for you (even though it wasn't even really what was best for her).
Also kind of annoyed that Liu Qing Wu got a happy ending. She did nothing to deserve it, IMO. She originally was a bad guy who killed HBQ's uncle. Then she was a traitor and tried to take over Liu Ming Shan Zhuang. Then she continually kept trying to cause trouble for HBQ and CY. Then she betrayed CY and sold out HBQ to the king. But she gets to have a happy life and get the power of being a beloved concubine? Pass.
But I do think Ariel and Zhang Bin Bin had some great chemistry and would definitely like another collaboration between them!
1) I get to a certain extent why they are so long because they often follow the entire life of a certain person or work across an entire dynasty, etc. But a lot of fans of chinese dramas get really sick of the extended episodes too. Historical I get, but I HATE when modern dramas are like 40+ episodes. It's just ridiculous. 2) Historical I normally split into: -- Imperial/Palace dramas (harem dramas, political dramas, etc.) - Nirvana in Fire, Empresses in the Palace, Story of Yanxi Palace ***Imperial dramas are typically based off of real people in Chinese history (with dramatic retelling of course) -- Wuxia - specifically focusing on martial arts heroes/Jiang Hu. Biggest focus is on hero stories. Legend of Condor Heroes, Swordsman, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon **Xianxia - a subset of Wu Xia with a big relevance on Buddhism/Daoism. Cultivation. reincarnation is a big part of the plot. Typical talk of "multiple realms - Heavenly realm, mortal realm, demonic realm." Often a bit more fantasy with the introduction of Spiritual beasts, gods, spirits, etc. - Ashes of Love, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 3) Chinese families were normally very big and complicated - especially for noble families who would all somehow intermarry to uphold their power. On top of that, it was common for men to take multiple wives, so you'll often also get additional family branches within the same household. (Ex. Story of Minglan - The Sheng family had the main wife, and two concubines. The "main" family was the mother, Hua Lan, Ru Lan, and Chang Bai. A secondary family was Lin ("Xiao Niang"), Chang Feng, and Mo Lan. And then you had the third family which was Minglan and her mother) - Some families had even more concubines, so it creates really large and tangled webs. 4) Chinese nobles typically had their "noble" name, I guess you'd call it and then more of a "family" name (something only close relatives/friends would call them. Using Hua bu qi:
Chen Yu - noble/princely name; Zhangqing - "family name"; Yu'er - using the character "Yu" from Chen Yu (to make it more familial, they would normally add the "er" at the end of names, or even "Xiao" (little) before names.
Hua Bu Qi - really was her fake name given by her uncle. Zhu Zhu - her "noble" name Hua Hua - I believe was a nickname based off of her "Hua Bu Qi" name.
5) Titles : This is honestly a hard one because it can go so many ways, but I'll try a mini break down. Chen Yu's father was a prince (son of the previous emperor), but since he did not become emperor, his son (Chen Yu) becomes a "Shi zi" - which is still royal blood, but a clear split from the current king's current bloodline.
During the Qing Dynasty - for princes (the Emperor's son), it's broken down into: Qin Wang --> Jun Wang --> Bei Le --> Bei Zi As far as I believe, princes could get promoted by the emperor along with a "title". Ex. In Empresses in the Palace - The emperor was promoted to "Bao Qin Wang" (which basically meant he was next in line for the throne, before the death of the previous emperor. 17th prince was "Guo Jun Wang" - so he was below the 4th prince in status.
6) This is mostly just a context clue thing that you find out throughout the story. That's just up to writing I think. I thought Bi Luo Tian was also an object, but then come to learn that it's a place? BUT what they really want is some kind of treasure within that place.
7) Chinese dramas are big on CGI even when it's not necessary, mostly due to budgeting (I think). It's easier to build a set and add some green screen than it is to pack up an entire film crew/cast/etc. and transport them around China. Hollywood is the same. You might not even realize that they're using it cause it's just less prominent outside of fantasy/sci-fi, etc. Whereas Chinese dramas it's more obvious cause they use it for just about everything.
8) If you haven't seen Nirvana in Fire, I definitely recommend. You are kind of thrown into it, but you see the background story in the first opening scenes and then they reveal everything about it as the story continues. It's not big on full contact PDA/romance, but it's definitely there. Ten Miles of Peach Blossom - definitely a big romance drama and they play the story out well where the time line is linear so you learn why people are fighting with who and who's at war with who.
9) Chinese idioms/Cheng Yu (Idiom with 4 characters) all come from Chinese literature so they always have some story behind them. I'm not Chinese by heritage, but I've seen enough Chinese dramas that you start to become familiar with the ones that are used often.
10) The blood thing really annoys me sometimes. That's the Chinese go-to for this person is poisoned/hurt/dying. Literally they can be whacked in the head, but to make sure the audience knows they're dying, they have to spit blood out.
Is Nirvana in Fire 2 better than the first one? I've been trying to finish NiF for three years now. I can't seem…
The first one is to this day one of the highest rated dramas in China. The first season was honestly spectacular. Acting was top notch and the story was great. I watched the second season (and I might rewatch soon) I honestly don’t remember having as strong an impression about. It was fun to watch, but I personally didn’t fall in love with it like I did with the first one. Highly recommend the first season for sure
I’ve seen most of the already released remakes (Summer’s Desire, Forget you Remember Love, You are my Destiny - couldn’t get through meteor garden) and most of them just make me think they don’t live up to the originals. Maybe it’s nostalgia (because honestly the quality of old TW dramas was shaky at best lol. Super over dramatic stories and acting, but people loved it) the newer versions just seem to try to modernize, which is fine, but it loses the charm that the originals have.
Personally of the three I’ve seen only Forget You Remember Love was decent to me. Not great by any means as I was not a fan of how they make all the storylines so “easy”, but eh.
You are my Destiny, I just don’t believe the romantic relationship between the leads (even though I loved them in the eternal love). Yes the drama is more modernized and realistic but it feels too much like their relationship is based on dependency (whereas the original I really saw them falling in love)
I’ll likely still watch the remakes, but yeah just my two cents
I do appreciate that they've modernized this version and made it a bit more realistic. BUT I honestly really don't like the plot change of how they accidentally sleep together and get pregnant. It's more realistic, sure, but it honestly really just makes the two of them actually shitty people. Guy is sad that his girlfriend stands him up again, gets drunk and sleeps with another girl. Meh.
1) Male lead did NOT have to die. He wasn't severely injured and if Dong Fang Shi could pull both BuQi and Chen Yu out of the hole, there's no reason why Chen Yu couldn't have tried a little harder instead of just giving up. Again. He wasn't SEVERELY injured.
2) Mo Ruo Fei - Glad s/he died by the end of it, but I really don't like how they changed the story for this character by the end. Throughout the drama MRF was very loyal and cared about HBQ. Yes, s/he sided with his mother after she poisoned HBQ, but throughout it all, MRF did still care about HBQ and wanted to right his mother's wrongs. Now that the king killed his mom, he could care less about everyone around him? No way. MRF betrayed her multiple times and at the very end willingly tried to get HBQ killed to -potentially- get revenge on the king. Meh.
3) So many people died in the last episode, that it really took away any sentimental value for it. Really only Xiao Xia (HBQ's guard) got a meaningful death (kind of, I'm still annoyed that she didn't even actually die for HBQ but for a fake HBQ).
Overall, I did like the drama. But it definitely wasn't a favorite just because of the story choices the writers made. Literally 11 episodes where the ML and FL are separated (and they were definitely the heart of the story for me). I skipped through most of those episodes and really could care less about them. It was way too long and the story got really boring (almost dropped the drama at this point).
I also really didn't care for Dong Fang Shi. Yes, he loved her and was trying to "protect her" but even up till the end, seeing how sad and unhappy she was, he still forced her to stay by his side (literally tied her up so she wouldn't run). He -barely- redeemed himself the first time his grandfather tried to take HBQ and he was willing to sacrifice himself for her. But again, he played the typical "I'm doing this for you (even though it wasn't even really what was best for her).
Also kind of annoyed that Liu Qing Wu got a happy ending. She did nothing to deserve it, IMO. She originally was a bad guy who killed HBQ's uncle. Then she was a traitor and tried to take over Liu Ming Shan Zhuang. Then she continually kept trying to cause trouble for HBQ and CY. Then she betrayed CY and sold out HBQ to the king. But she gets to have a happy life and get the power of being a beloved concubine? Pass.
But I do think Ariel and Zhang Bin Bin had some great chemistry and would definitely like another collaboration between them!
2) Historical I normally split into:
-- Imperial/Palace dramas (harem dramas, political dramas, etc.) - Nirvana in Fire, Empresses in the Palace, Story of Yanxi Palace
***Imperial dramas are typically based off of real people in Chinese history (with dramatic retelling of course)
-- Wuxia - specifically focusing on martial arts heroes/Jiang Hu. Biggest focus is on hero stories. Legend of Condor Heroes, Swordsman, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
**Xianxia - a subset of Wu Xia with a big relevance on Buddhism/Daoism. Cultivation. reincarnation is a big part of the plot. Typical talk of "multiple realms - Heavenly realm, mortal realm, demonic realm." Often a bit more fantasy with the introduction of Spiritual beasts, gods, spirits, etc. - Ashes of Love, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms
3) Chinese families were normally very big and complicated - especially for noble families who would all somehow intermarry to uphold their power. On top of that, it was common for men to take multiple wives, so you'll often also get additional family branches within the same household.
(Ex. Story of Minglan - The Sheng family had the main wife, and two concubines. The "main" family was the mother, Hua Lan, Ru Lan, and Chang Bai. A secondary family was Lin ("Xiao Niang"), Chang Feng, and Mo Lan. And then you had the third family which was Minglan and her mother) - Some families had even more concubines, so it creates really large and tangled webs.
4) Chinese nobles typically had their "noble" name, I guess you'd call it and then more of a "family" name (something only close relatives/friends would call them. Using Hua bu qi:
Chen Yu - noble/princely name;
Zhangqing - "family name";
Yu'er - using the character "Yu" from Chen Yu (to make it more familial, they would normally add the "er" at the end of names, or even "Xiao" (little) before names.
Hua Bu Qi - really was her fake name given by her uncle.
Zhu Zhu - her "noble" name
Hua Hua - I believe was a nickname based off of her "Hua Bu Qi" name.
5) Titles : This is honestly a hard one because it can go so many ways, but I'll try a mini break down.
Chen Yu's father was a prince (son of the previous emperor), but since he did not become emperor, his son (Chen Yu) becomes a "Shi zi" - which is still royal blood, but a clear split from the current king's current bloodline.
During the Qing Dynasty - for princes (the Emperor's son), it's broken down into:
Qin Wang --> Jun Wang --> Bei Le --> Bei Zi
As far as I believe, princes could get promoted by the emperor along with a "title".
Ex. In Empresses in the Palace - The emperor was promoted to "Bao Qin Wang" (which basically meant he was next in line for the throne, before the death of the previous emperor.
17th prince was "Guo Jun Wang" - so he was below the 4th prince in status.
6) This is mostly just a context clue thing that you find out throughout the story. That's just up to writing I think. I thought Bi Luo Tian was also an object, but then come to learn that it's a place? BUT what they really want is some kind of treasure within that place.
7) Chinese dramas are big on CGI even when it's not necessary, mostly due to budgeting (I think). It's easier to build a set and add some green screen than it is to pack up an entire film crew/cast/etc. and transport them around China. Hollywood is the same. You might not even realize that they're using it cause it's just less prominent outside of fantasy/sci-fi, etc. Whereas Chinese dramas it's more obvious cause they use it for just about everything.
8) If you haven't seen Nirvana in Fire, I definitely recommend. You are kind of thrown into it, but you see the background story in the first opening scenes and then they reveal everything about it as the story continues. It's not big on full contact PDA/romance, but it's definitely there.
Ten Miles of Peach Blossom - definitely a big romance drama and they play the story out well where the time line is linear so you learn why people are fighting with who and who's at war with who.
9) Chinese idioms/Cheng Yu (Idiom with 4 characters) all come from Chinese literature so they always have some story behind them. I'm not Chinese by heritage, but I've seen enough Chinese dramas that you start to become familiar with the ones that are used often.
10) The blood thing really annoys me sometimes. That's the Chinese go-to for this person is poisoned/hurt/dying. Literally they can be whacked in the head, but to make sure the audience knows they're dying, they have to spit blood out.