grapejuice

If you were the bad guy, would you kidnap the well respected lady if you weren't sure that your target would pay the ransom because he's a low born cad who doesn't care about her enough to have married her? Doesn't matter if there are people calling her his fiance when he says they aren't and they haven't really been for such a long time. Personally, I'd leave the lady alone in this circumstance and try to find a better way to get at my target.

As for her reputation being harmed. I don't think she cares too much cuz she knows the truth that they will marry some day, she's got stuff of her own to do ... and she has much thicker skin than other women in her position.

She is surrounded by her family and is more visible in the capital. She can't quietly disappear. She also has a private guard and honors to her name so I imagine she'll start a career there so again, she's got better things to do and she's gone beyond suffering over her reputation. I mean she's not looking to make a good marriage match. She has a reputation of a different sort now. One she earned by being brilliant and she's only attending these parties because she wants to learn things that might help him. So, people might be looser with their lips if she isn't his fiance and that might help too.

I guess we can split this in both directions and we'll both be right in one way or the other. The thing is that it's only temporary and they're both certain that they'll be getting married some day. So it's hard to be apart (and it bothers the audience) but he's trying to save her from more than heartache and it's not a sacrifice that they weren't both willing to make. Which means that it's a very defendable kind of noble idiocy if you can call it that at all.

He had people fooled until the Emperor outed them in public. Watchers were thinking and even ready to humiliate her with taunts about his jilting her. So his plan might have worked if he'd had a chance to discuss it with the Emperor. People wanted to think he was a cad and they wanted to think that she was pathetic and so there had been a breakup ... but the Emperor seems to be a bit smitten with our leads and their relationship so he just had to ship them in front of the other officials and now everybody has to change their tune.

Totally agree on your assessment of the second lead couple and their GOAT. I was even wondering how the latter had trained the baby to pick up the right objects at the party? I could see her studying the problem for hours (while scheming up other things too) before arriving at just the right placement for the next generation narcissist.

OK. Haha. Now you really have shortened the time til my re-watch !!! That's one very effective description ! TY :-)

I don't remember it from POJ but that was a beautifully shot production so you've given me one more reason to schedule a re-watch !!! The thing is that the screen and shadows have probably been used in many stage, television and film productions. I think it comes from shadow puppet shows, no? No doubt it was done well this time especially with the spray of blood emphasizing their separation and the dangers that will arise when the separation ends and he is no longer the only one in the line of fire. I mean it looked great but it was used to speak a few volumes as well.

Something about the enjoyment factor maybe. Lost perception of time increases as enjoyment deepens? Where enjoyment involves a lot of total immersion. haha. Trying to sound scientific here :-)

But also LoL the episodes are really well constructed with many scenes that catch and hold you in. The rain on the umbrella at night. The white screen with the identifiable shadows. I swear I forgot to breathe during those beautiful cinematic moments and that probably ruined my perception of time passing.

Or the better explanation ... it's just that good !!! And so we lose track of time :-)
Nice to have a drama like that, isn't it?

Omg. The tears are too hot ...

These episodes are just too short. Way. Too. Short.
So good.

oh my. Should I give up on Brave AI? it's saying Indonesia and Gabon are the only two countries that celebrate their Independence Day on August 17th. Actually, it's getting too late here and I can't think on it anymore. Except that I do believe you should take a few hours to put your feet up even if you have a workday of writing. Well unless your next deadline is yesterday or something. :-)

Oh I totally agree with you about all the kdramas you just mentioned. I just couldn't watch or enjoy them and they were the pick of the litter. Little character development. Shallow relationships. Lots of violence. No soul. Especially Teach You a Lesson. But you can really see the difference occurring in the years between A Shop for Killers s1 and s2. They're both loud with non-stop bullets flying but s1 had a relationship and a desperate mystery to understand at it's core. There was personal tragedy with depth ... while s2 just didn't have it ... despite an absolutely tremendous cast. It's sad. Like the life has just seeped out of them. Not all of them ... just a lot.

Lichtenstein? The Congo? India? Korea? All had an Independence Day during this last few days (according to Google) ... but LoL I'm assuming that you're in Korea? Anyway ... happy long weekend !!!

It is Sunday where I am ...

It would be nice if English language TV, particularly, American TV had more character driven stories that women often prefer and, having been addicted to the Y&R during my after school TV watching years, I also get the lure of things that you kind of live with over many years. I remember hearing someone say that the Y&R was the longest term relationship of their entire life. But Asian dramas were like an antidote to everything that English language TV did so poorly and now, in order to get Netflix money, kdrama producers are, I think, anticipating what international audiences will want to watch ... i.e. all the stuff that drove us to Asian dramas in the first place. There's so much more violence for instance in newer kdramas. I mean it's nice to see that more people are appreciating Asian dramas. They're excellent and they deserve to be celebrated for their quality. But I think there's still too much Western 'centrism' and too much antii-China sentiment for more than a few shows to break through and get beyond just the non-mainstream watchers like ourselves. Yet. We can hope for the world to become a place where more people and more culture is celebrated.

It was Yu Cheng who got manipulated into the mistake though and that put ZL into the position where he had to take credit for the murders or call out his friend for the fraud. Not an enviable position to be in. So, he chose not to rat out his best friend although he kinda knew it would go terribly wrong. I actually thought he was taking the very small chance that it would get overlooked over the 100% certainty that Yu Cheng would lose his head if he ZL didn't back up the lie.

For the second 16 heads though ... they weren't innocents and they very probably would have been dead soon anyway. They were a criminal element taking advantage of the army not having enough money to buy salt through legitimate channels ... but they were selling at a premium partly because the salt was needed and partly because they could extorting General Wang and others for doing business with them.

Wang would have been relieved to have ZL kill them and eliminate the possibility that they would all lose their heads for buying contraband with government funds. So, I think it's highly likely that Wang would have found a way to eliminate that gang had ZL not done it first. ZL was actually being smart enough to solve his own problem and a few of the General's at the same time. Why? The inspection team had already threatened Wang with the issue saying that he could find himself going back to the capital if he made a fuss over ZL ... leaving nobody to lead the troops into battle.

As an aside, it always astounds me that officialdom so stupidly dares to mess with the military during times of war. They should very obviously lose their heads too ... especially the one we hate most. :-)

Family went to the authorities to report/complain that military men had killed their innocent civilian kin but there was no real evidence connecting ZL and his crew to the crime ... except that they were seen in the vicinity and somebody said that they heard ZL's voice.

So, it was the merit claim that connected them to the crime instead of the actual perpetrators who had also, of course, been there and submitted the merit claim.

Presenting a different 16 heads erased the whole thing then which is why they did it. Li was guilty and it was only a sleight of hand on Inspector Yu's part that transfered the first set of innocent heads to ZL and company. Our boys signed on the dotted line but could later claim that the first report was wrongly attributed IFF there was a second batch of merit killings that they could document and properly prove.

As others have said, it's now wartime with the General not having the time or the desire to pursue the matter. Would the families just go home happy with a new explanation? Well, ZL and his men had been highly visible and much appreciated around town while the actual murderer Li was definitely not.

There's also the fact that Inspector Yu set the whole thing up and that probably involved getting a few of the victim's families to step forward when they hadn't previously done so. Did he pay them to make noise? Probably. So they would likely just take the money and run. The rest of the inspection team knew what had really happened just like everyone else did.

So, overall, I had no problem believing that the smear campaign could go away as quickly as it came around. But Yuc heng? It was sad that such a good guy felt so guilty and so responsible because of the incident. That was the real travesty and tragedy. It was all avoidable except that Inspector Yu made it happen. There is even the strong implication that Yu cheng's mother may have died because of it as well. She suddenly got ill and died when her son is accused and jailed? No coincidence.

Anyway, you're well entitled to feel as you do about the writing but I think that the pieces were put together in a logical and quite feasible way ... which would have come through more clearly ,maybe, if it had unfolded less quickly.

Have you been watching kdramas go downhill since netflix and the others have gotten hold of them. They're much shorter. They're plot/action driven instead of character driven. They so much more violent and unthinking. And they're all much the same now ... with none of the heart, soul and charm that they used to have. So, I think that's enough proof that we don't want Made in America expectations and preferences stamped onto cdramas, future kdramas and jdramas etc. too. Sorry but leave things alone. International audiences be damned if they're going to just warp a good thing into something else altogether.

I was a bit underwhelmed by Pearl Girl too. Enjoyable but not the great I was expecting. But TY for the other two suggestions. I had not heard of either and they both sound good. :-)

TY TY :-) my list is growing today with a few that I hadn't even heard of TY

wow. I had no idea i would get this many suggestions ! TY !!!

He was great til he got his memory/identity back and then ... well the word vanilla is kind of you to use ... especially when two and particularly one of the other choices were so much better. Tears lots of tears :-(
Can you tell that it's in my top tier for Chinese dramas with the feelings running so deep? :-)

The family treated her abominably and then they totally denied the only thing that she asked of them; that they marry her brother into the family. He didn't have much skill for the world so he really needed a soft place to land but they couldn't see their way into marrying him in; let alone to the ninth lady. Anyway, along with everything else, that seemed to be the last straw for her and it helped to target her hatred at TY I think. It's hard to cut other people some slack; hard to be benevolent when you're own life is so horrible. The lack of light and the lack of future hope even for her brother? She finally lost it. And it's pretty easy to understand how it could happen. As you say, she's a tragic figure. It's not forgivable to try to inflict pain on others because you've been subjected to it yourself ... but it is understandable.