geechoo

It's not S+ because industry insiders have already said so. Are you Chinese? I am and I am on weibo and read stuff about this. No, the costume is not expensive looking, that's actually been a common criticism about this drama so far. The costume is by the same company that made New Life Begins (another A+ drama). The cast is also not expensive either. Bai Lu has never headlined a big budget drama. She had a hit recently but it was LYX who had the first biling. Her liuliang has actually only increased this year. The rest of the cast are basically nobodies.

SOKP is not S+ at all lol it's A+. aside from BL, the other actors at the time of filming were nobodies. ZLH only started gaining attention after LBFAD which aired after this drama started filming. Even looking at the costumes, set design, etc you can tell this drama wasn't expensive. It started gaining hype after ZLH blew up and also the dating rumors between the leads.

The 3rd male lead is a big risk because his issue can be brought up anytime. The drama can still be taken off air even if it airs. Nobody really knows why it suddenly got delayed but imo if it's not airing in September then we can consider it shelved permanently, but until then, I still think it has a chance.

this drama was never going to air during the summer slot though. that slot is always reserved ahead of time for their most important dramas. even if they do air this, it will have to be after the summer slot.

also A Love Never Lost is a much more severe case. iirc that drama finished filming wayy back in 2019 and the issue has to do with the subject matter rather than one particular actor.

no. the rumored summer line up is Destined-Love You Seven Times-The Lotus Casebook. This one should be Q4 at the earliest (Oct to Dec). Would fit the tone of the drama better too imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1RfsYuLwjQ

they released previews of the OST and bai jingting sang two songs! surprisingly.. he has a good voice lol

tbh even if it airs in September, that wouldn't be too bad since it only officially finished filming September of last year. One year from filming to broadcast is pretty normal for cdramas. Some of the larger liuliang dramas (like Yu Gu Yao) were delayed much longer. The problem is no one really knows what delayed it. If it really has to do with the 3rd male lead then.. I fear this drama will never see the light of day.

tbf I think he only has a cameo appearance in two of them

I think they want him to hit big first and costume dramas are always the best way to become liuliang stars.

I keep re-watching the teaser. it's so good omg. also Zhang Linghe looks the best so far of any of his dramas lol there are seriously some angles where he reminds me of Takeshi Kaneshiro. a lot of popular actors these days aren't the traditional type of handsome like he is. I need him to become popular asap.

just finished LBFAD so I'm a bit obsessed with Zhang Linghe right now lol checking into his upcoming dramas and this one seems to be the one that'll air first? the plot summary sounds interesting.. enemies to lovers?

tbh I'm surprised he even has a profile lol I think he has that one small supporting role in hwarang and.. that's it

should be Dafeng Guardian (大奉打更人) with Tian Xi Wei.

I finally watched this. I knew it was hugely popular last year but I put off watching it for the longest time. Well, I started on Friday and binged the whole 36 episodes in 3 days. I have to say, I would give this drama 10/10 if it ended after episode 28. The last 8 episodes were poorly written imo especially DFQC , who was kind of OOC.

However, I want to say, this drama has some of the BEST visuals I've seen in c-dramas. There are some sequences that almost remind me of the Harry Potter movies. The big energy domes that are created for example. And the cinematography is amazing, you could literally screenshot any moment and turn it into a wall paper. Some of the scenes I found visually amazing :
- DFQC fighting into the heaven realm to rescue XLH in episode 9. The part where him & Chang Heng fight and the background water walls break.. amazing
- DFQC appearing out the moon to rescue XLH. that sequence was something straight out of a manga.

Overall, this is one of the few XianXia dramas that I've really enjoyed. I usually stay away from this genre because I find them repetitive (master/student relationships, a lot of angst, a lot of blood spitting, really poor cgi) but this one really captured my attention from the get go because of the visuals. WHD also really changed my mind about him. I never really thought he could act but he does a really good job here. I was fully bawling with him in episode 31.

even New Life Begins (an actual comedy) has a better filter. it's weird because in the 杀青 vid from last November, the director kept stressing how this is a "grounded" historical drama so everything has to look natural. hope this preview was misleading. this drama is one I've been looking forward to the most.

paparazzis caught them staying over night when they were filming their drama together last year but imo I don't think they're dating since they haven't been spotted together since then. I think they might've just had a fling during filming.

the trailer definitely caught my interest. it looks so expensive and I love the dark atmosphere. guo jinming is good with visuals but sometimes his story telling is.. overly melodramatic. pretty much none of his dramas have high ratings on douban. this will definitely deliver visually though.

he is 9 years older than Zhao Jinmai (FL in Reset) lol you really can't see the age difference. but yeah, he was always famous for his baby face.

my biggest worry about the drama is the filter. the filter used in the trailer is wayyy too bright. it makes the drama look like a b-grade comedy. I like the filter used in the vid from last November. this drama isn't really a comedy, especially the latter parts. I wish they used a less bright filter. something like Story of Minglan or Love like Galaxy would be good

it's not really a romcom. the beginning of the novel is comedic-ish mostly because the male lead is very immature. his character grows a lot later on. the trailer only shows the beginning portions. the story has a lot of political elements.

I've only watched the first episode but I wish the fight scenes were more.. smooth? idk there's a tendency to have slow mo and then suddenly normal and then slow mo and then sped up lol it's hard to describe