gwennie call

Just wanted to say I'm watching it on Kissanime!

I get that MingLan was maybe a bad comparison, but what about Chef Hua, then? Did that have a higher budget (maybe the cooking montages cost a lot, IDK)? Because it was so very superior - you had real people in real situations, and sure, there was a little of the wuxia in Meng Yuhai, but it was mainly pretty down to earth. I mention it because Tang Min was really good in it, which makes me even more disappointed.

It's like, once Jin'Er and RouRou get to the 'savage and wild' part of the country, everything devolves into slapstick and shenanigans. The first episode had funny parts, but also serious parts, when she had to leave her mum, and tried to cheer her up by saying that yeah, maybe beyond the Great Wall there are things to see, etc. But then once she actually gets there, she moves into a house which looks exactly like her father's and the shenanigans commence. Also, we have the usual trope of 'it's not a real marriage, so we won't be consummating, ever.'
IDK. I'll watch a few more, but this isn't a patch on Chef Hua.

I watched up to episode 3 and eh. Kind of disappointed. Look, both Tang Min and Caesar Wu are good, once the script called upon him to do more than just look blank. But the drama itself is more slapstick comedy than I expected; more Sleeping Princess than Story of Ming Lan, if you catch my drift. I'm finding a lot of things vaguely irritating: the comedy music, the 'look at the hilarious things that are happening' type soundtrack, for example. I haven't read the book it was based on, only a summary - that, and the first episode led me to expect something much more serious, but with comic bits in between. Following post will be more spoilery:

The acting is fine, everyone's good in it - the problem is that you think Asule is the hero/protagonist, and he literally should be, but he spends about 2/3 of the show asleep/unconscious/in a coma/dead. He does one badass thing for about 5 minutes, and then it's "oh, he's ok. he's just passed out. AGAIN." And we switch to people I literally DGAF about. Yu Ran? The general's daughter? The blind guy? Iron Emperor? a million other characters of which you're continuously saying, oh yeah, forgot about that guy, wait I don't care.
It's not as bad as Evernight (which intro'd a new set of characters in literally every episode until I stopped watching), but come on now. And then we come to that ending, which I wasn't expecting and which pissed me off so much. WTAF. Liu Haoran, get a new agent.

I've now finished it (actually last week, but it took me some time to calm my enraged feelings), and WTAF. I'm going to have to rewatch NiF 2 to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

I know, now. I also know how it ends. And I deeply regret the time I spent on it. I should have listened to the negative comments here, lol

I mean, open-ended is one thing; but this, as Anxme said, is just nonsense. Basically, it's like they ran out of money and told the actors 'just say some bullshit while I swoop around you with a drone', and scene! That's a wrap!

I mean, yeah, right? Zoning out is a good description! I was like, 'do something with your face, girl! emote!' And it was nothing, just blank. I wanted to say she's better in the earlier eps, where she's in 'disguise' but then I remember the badness of some scenes, and I have to cringe.

So in the end Feng Wu and Jun are getting married! Yay! Then Mu Jiu Chuan appears and says, according to the subs "I'm here to pick you up", which I highly suspect really means "I'm here to take you home". Because Feng Wu wasn't really Feng Wu, she was a girl from the future/real world, whatever. So we're meant to assume that Mu takes her back - however, what we see is the two characters standing in front of a very pretty house, staring a little past each other, while Feng Wu's voice -over says: "Don't worry about the ending - what's important is how we got here!"
To which I answer, no it fucking isn't! This is bullshit! Girl, don't waste your time, seriously.

Absolutely. He's the only character who treats her like a person even when she's in her 'ugly girl' disguise (and the less said about that the better, because once I start I might not be able to stop). This series just made me sad - I like the actor, and I'm glad for him that he got a really significant part (even though as some people said, a lot was cut from the original material), but this was a bad show.

I have a question, which is born out of the different subs for : 铁甲依然在, (tie jia yi ran zai) which is the saying the secret warrior society say to each other. In the youtube version, it's usually 'everlasting eagle flag' and I was like, of course,, just like the show name. Then I watched a few eps on Viki, where they have it as "the armour is all around" and besides being annoyed by the subbers not having a poetic bone in their bodies (I looked up the characters, and how about: the iron armour is everlasting? ) I was like, 'where's the eagle?' and 'what are they actually saying? So I painstakingly copied the characters onto a site which converts handwritten to printed hanzi and looked THAT up, and there's not a freaking eagle to be seen, let alone a flag! What gives? Why is it called Eagle Flag? I know the why of Novoland, and I have my own issues with that, but seriously, the hell is going on?

yeah, I decided to watch the episodes raw and while I didn't understand what they were saying, I got the general gist of the whole thing. kind of disappointing - i mean, powerful magical bullshit and all, and a broken arm is slowing him down? WTF. Also, while watching, I was like 'I hope they're not trying to pretend his arm was blown off, because I can SEE IT UNDER HIS CLOAK!!" Please, Wang Hao Xuan, get a better gig.

I'm completely up for being spoiled, so someone please tell me what happens to Yu Ming Ye (AKA, the only character I care about). I've just watched a very disturbing trailer on youtube and I have a bad feeling about this.

It is . . . not good. I'm only watching it for Yu Ming Ye (Wang Hao Xuan) - I'm this close to writing a fix-it fanfic, TBH. The early episodes I managed to download and ffd through, stopping when I saw dark blue/black robes, but in the latest ones the subs are in closed captioning, so they don't show up. Anyway, it's not just the fact that the actor is m'boy - the character himself is the only one who isn't despicable, besides the lead, and the jury's out on her, to be honest. So, basically, unless there's one of the actors who you'd like to support, I'd drop it.

I think the censors have a problem with the whole 'person from now goes back to then' unless the character goes inside a book/video game/ tv series . I mean, anyone who read the book 'Story of Minglan' knows that the main character was someone who died in modern times and is reborn in the past - her mental dialogue talks about it a lot. But it's completely removed from the tv series.

Thanks for answering - I thought it might be something like that! Yes, the king was truly infuriating in this version - we see him reassuring her at the beginning (Don't worry) and then he just abandons her to be mistreated by everyone! Don't worry, but after he becomes Emperor his evil mom keeps her locked up for months! Don't worry, but he believes every accusation against her and abandons her to the cold palace for 3 years! She had to frickin' poison herself to get out! I can imagine this version of Ruyi finally deciding 'fuck this shit, I'm out!'

I don't know if you've caught up on Liu Haoran's work but if you haven't, watch Nirvana in Fire 2 - he's the main character and it really showcases his skills. (you don't have to have watched the first one to understand NiF2). Also I agree with you about Amy Chen - really good performance.

Are they really filming a second season or does it have the kind of ending where we THINK, well, this has to be going somewhere, and then it never happens?

I'm back. I AM TRYING. But I hate Yu Ran so very, very, very much. My poor boy Asule, why couldn't you fall for Princess Xiao Zhou? Seriously, dude.