kitty10

1984 TVB version with Tony Leung and Andy Lau, if you can find it.

No. Japan just doesn't see the need to expand and mostly continues to focus on its domestic market. Some services like Netflix are making inroads, and there are selected Japanese channels in Southeast Asia, but it remains that Japan lacks the desire (not capability) for overseas export of its dramas.

Not sure how the drama will portray it though.

In the book, he executes his revenge a couple of days before their wedding, so they don't get married before he is banished for the next few years.

From their character names: "Yi" from Ling Buyi, and "Shang" from Cheng Shaoshang. "Fufu" means husband and wife, and can also mean a couple.

It's actually a pretty decent score at douban, considering all the problems.

If you like the leads, You are My Glory for Yang Yang and Dating in the Kitchen for Zhao Lusi.

Sword Snow Stride was more xuanhuan than wuxia, so the martial arts was different.

Yes, he is dubbed by Bian Jiang.

Thanks for sharing that. Had heard something similar, but not sure how true that was. I think rather than blame it on one particular person, the entire crew should shoulder the responsibility because just about every part of this drama had problems - horrible script and editing, lack of direction, "martial arts" choreography, half-baked acting, plagiarism allegations, animal abuse controversy, fallout between director and producer, marketing fail, mehh costumes, etc etc.

Also, don't think Yang Yang's clout is that huge that the entire production has to listen to him, lol.

He's the villain so he'll die.

Given how they've messed up Lanxi's characterisation, yes I'd rather Huang Chao take over.

Why, you want a saint who has shown no aptitude to rule?

Huang Chao if they follow the book.

Given how the drama has shaped Lanxi and dumbed down his intelligence and desire for power, just made him saintly and chase skirts half the time, he should not be the one to rule. He has not shown one ounce of why he deserves to reign. He has taken forever to seize the crown prince position for himself, raised his own troops too late, is often reactive, and is slow on the uptake. He has not shown any aptitude for the kind of power politics that is required to balance power in the various states and across the empire as a whole.

Huang Chao is capable and has what it takes. He may be ambitious but it doesn't mean he won't do right by his citizens. Honestly, the drama should have cleared the Yongzhou arc by the first 20 (max 25) episodes, and spent the rest of the time on the face-off between Feng Lanxi and Huang Chao, but with a different, stronger characterisation for Lanxi in order for him to be able to take on Huang Chao. Because right now, Huang Chao is the only one who at least reflects the title of 且试天下 (actually it's probably more of Yu Wuyuan's 且试天下 but since he's the baddie, he won't survive).

The revelation in the book isn't dramatic, but it had impact, and a fun-ish element because of how Xiyun's dad exposed Lanxi. Also, it came very naturally because the leads had known each other for so long, they already knew but just didn't expose each other, and one reveal came after another in quick succession.

The drama's "revelation" had no impact, especially when you consider Xiyun already knew about Lanxi's other identity in the mid-teen episodes, everyone and their mother knew about Lanxi being Hei Fengxi by ep 23, but Lanxi himself only figured out Xiyun and Bai Fengxi are one and the same in ep 35.

Let's not.

The book was female-centric. Unfortunately, the drama lead is Yang Yang, so they turned it into a male-centric drama and did the FL's characterisation a disservice.

There isn't enough material for another 40 eps.

In episode 1, a horse fell badly (iirc it was head first?) and netizens slammed the production for animal abuse, saying there was no way the horse survived with that kind of fall. The production issued a clarification saying the horse was fine because it was a trained horse and showed photos, but netizens again argued that it was not the same horse, pointing out various differences between the photos and what was shown on screen.

The production also never addressed the plagiarism allegations about having copied the political schemes (the exam cheating and military horses plots) from Royal Nirvana.