gwennie call

Yeah, it's just making him look stiff - I watched all of The Long Ballad and he' had really improved; now he's back to being a block of wood.
Also, just watched a bit of episode 7 on one of the streaming sites; according to one of his officers, "the men are talking in your behind." lol

I first watched The Untamed, then read the MDZS translation online, then I downloaded the audio books with subtitles etc etc - this all started in early 2020, I'm still obsessed with all things MXTX and I'm in the middle of writing XueXiao fanfic (currently stuck but once RL eases up a little I'll resume).
I think once I'm into something I'm in it, as long as the resolution isn't super disappointing - but as canon is written and done for 2ha, I don't think that'll happen.
CLOWN FOR LIFE!!

sharing is caring!

I agree. The only reason I want this to be adapted is selfish reasons of 'no new danmei adaptations are coming out/no new historical drama which interests me is coming out'. But to water down their relationship would be very sad, or even to add some female love interest - I doubt that the QJJ fandom is that invested or huge enough to protest if that happens.
Back to trawling the 'coming soon' lists to see if anything interests me.

Here's the thing: I used to think it was a problem I had with some k-dramas where I'd start watching and about halfway through I'd lose interest. Sometimes I'd skip about 3 middle episodes and go straight through to the end, sometimes I'd just drop it. And I was like, clearly a 'me problem'.
Then I watched All of us are dead, and boy. I didn't feel the urge to skip/ffwd ONE MINUTE. IT's like, finally I realised what the problem is with some of the k-dramas and c-dramas I've watched: a lack of pacing and convoluted secondary plotlines which add nothing to the story and just take the focus off the main plotline.
Another reason why AOUAD is superior to those other shows is lighting, camerawork, cinematography, etc. But there are other shows with great cinematography (Goblin, for example, is beautifully shot, and Elena is right, the OST is lovely), but their twists and turns and unsatisfying resolutions just make it not worth the time for me.
Sometimes I push through because I like the main actor, but man it's not worth it - I've never getting back the time I spent on Novoland Eagle Flag, which was not worth it at all.

I haven't watched any of these except King: Eternal Monarch and I dropped it too, though I never went back. I liked the first few episodes, especially the whole fish out of water business when he went to actual SK, but then I found the story got dull and lost pacing. Also the whole plot resolution towards the end (I spoiled myself on youtube) just felt like the screenwriter tying themself into knots and nothing made sense anymore.

I too am a serial dropper - I've dropped Goblin (couldn't see the point anymore), Ever Night (every episode had a new set of characters), General's Lady (you know what's really funny? mooing effects to make us know when to laugh!), Advisors' Alliance (the subtitles made my brain cry), Sweet Home (turns out I don't mind fast zombies but I hate monster body horror) and so on.

It's on dramacool with english subs
ETA starting from episode 3 the subs are horrendous, like google translate came to life and started working on this show. So I spoke too soon. Someone tell me kisskh is better, please

See, I wasn't invested in the actors and I didn't like the characters that much.

Yep , just watched All of us are dead (FIRE) and Happiness (snore) and came back here to see if there’s any news. Tears of a 🤡

I don’t know if it’s for the same reasons, but I agree.

I follow meatbun's twitter and last week she said she signed the contract for an English edition! 🎉

I love Wei Wuxian (Xiao Zahn's best performance, IMO) and Tang Fan is adorable (love Darren Chen )

Would also like to propose someone for your consideration: Jin Han as Zhu Zan in Jun Jiu Ling - although he is the male lead, he doesn't appear for the first few episodes, I think. But when he does, he is hilarious - he's such a kidder, always joking around (but serious when he needs to be) and he provides a great foil for the supercompetent and serious protagonist, Jun Jiu Ling (Peng Xiao Ran).

The show is consistently good until the last episode (if you watch it, then you can read my rants about the last episode), but it has a happy ending, which is always my most important condition for watching a show.

Just finished Marvelous Women and she was really a revelation - her acting has matured so much since I saw her in NiF2. Shufang was funny and strong and capable. Well done.

Just finished Marvelous Women and he's really great in it - easily my favourite male character.

Xu Hai Qiao's speaking style was the most irritating for me - maybe it's an acting style? Just the unnatural pauses bugged me (with Mao Zi Jun it was his sudden tendency to break into song which had me scrabbling for the mute button, but I guess that was the character).

I agree with the judgement of Ru Feng - from a disliked character he became my second favourite, after Ciuxi and the girls. He really was useless at the beginning, then he went through a baptism of fire and came out the other side as a wonderful man.

For once, the ending of this does not disappoint! In fact, I was left wanting to see more, to see Ciuxi's further adventures!

EXACTLY.
Since I made that post I've seen worse - a show that's praised here, but without mentioning anywhere that the alternative title to the show is 'Fatty Princess loses weight for love'. In this other show it's the same actress but wearing a fat-suit and latex, which she loses during the 3 month time skip. So basically, if fatphobia bothers you, don't watch Royal Kitchen (set in Qing dynasty) aka Fatty Princess loses weight for love.

Yes I love his character in JJL so much - when he's teasing Jiuling and kidding around with his bros, love him!

Finally, someone else who was irritated by the way Li Shimin was prettified in The Long Ballad - no-one's saying that Taizong wasn't a great Emperor, but he still got there by doing a lot of heinous stuff, up to and including murdering his brothers and their entire households!

You are so right. I can’t believe we were robbed of Zhu Zan all in red, riding in front of the wedding sedan. Nothing, no bows, etc. It would have been a wonderful full circle moment, as the show STARTED with a wedding and would end with a sincere one.

Seriously, WHO DID THIS?

Besides the ongoing crime against hair that was Jin Han's braided updo, I would like to respectfully ask, what in the everloving eff was that last episode. No, what?
Did they have an intern who needed work experience and they gave him the finale to edit? Or did the budget finally run out? But then, not everything can be explained by lack of money. There were also plot holes - the ex-Emperor, who was shown to be responsible for the deaths of, among many others, his father and brother, was ignored, in a kind of "aren't we punishing him? answer: shrugging emoji" kind of way.

But let's stick to the editing. In the last few minutes, we have the most underwhelming coronation I've ever seen in a c-drama (I didn't even get a good 'wan sui' chorus, my favourite part), intercut with a slo-mo Fang family reunion, which leads into a charming bit between second couple, then back to the coronation, and end.

Many of the scenes had no background sound/music at all, completely dead air surrounding the dialogue (if you had no music, you'd have effects, like birdsong/city life etc).

Instead of the main couple, we had a loving montage of all the best bits between JJL and Ning (??!) - like, the weiqi game and accompanying dialogue was really enough for a goodbye scene, very charming. But a romantic style montage? HUH?

And the actual romantic scene between our leads was cut for . . . ? It can't be for time - the episode was 36 minutes, well under what it usually runs to.

And then I watched the cut scene, and I take back all my complaints about Zhu Zan's braided updo, because holy crap that looked terrible.

What happened to prison hair, huh (prison hair was his best hair - fight me on that)? Did they throw away the wig before they realised they might need it?

I still would have kept the scene, though - especially as it was in the credits. Why cut it? WHY.