la0wai

The original title in Chinese 繁城之下 can be translated as "underneath the prosperous city" or "the dark side of the prosperous town".
Even though the adjective ripe in English doesn't apply to cities but rather to fruits/veggies, I quite like this title because just as a fruit the city can become rotten and rife with corruption.

Wow, he is so versatile! Totally enjoying his performance in Long Season and in Trilateral Slopes!

As I was rewatching some of the earlier episodes, I noticed a small glitch in the editing, to be precise in the episode 3 at 14:52 Zheng Bei's mentor repeats the same lines in the span of like 10 seconds (these probably are different takes of the same scene).
I don't know if there is a problem with my video source or something, but it's strange that such a big budget drama hasn't been reviewed with more scrutiny.

It's so sad to see that Tencent isn't all that interested in promoting this drama to the international audience, it's been more than a year since the release and still no decent subs.
Only the first 6 episodes on youtube have good subtitles but after that ep7, ep8, ep11 and ep12 are very difficult to understand because of the machine translation:
e.g. 马队 = the captain Ma is translated as the team horse
桦林 (the name of the town) is translated as birch forest.. like come on Tencent you could've paid the translator to finish the job!
Strangely enough, translations for ep 9 and 10 are fine but to be fair these episodes are a bit shorter than others, so probably they were cheaper to sub.

He's great in Ripe Town, I enjoyed his acting very much!

yes! i ship them so hard, esp all these close-ups on their hands clutching.. from the trailers I thought the princess might be annoying but the actress is really good with what she's been given

yep, every episode has at least one fighting sequence iirc.. even though some viewers pointed out the excessive use of close-ups, i really liked the fight scenes in this drama.

thank you for the long reply! i also tried several times updating info on mdl but it's so difficult to fit their requirements and the changes are slow to update so I gave up trying tbh.

Ikr! QJJ is an amazing actor, I'm really happy for him that he got to participate in such a big production. It's just that sometimes some actors aren't added to the cast if they have double identities or are surprise cameos, so I was worried that I would know some twists before they happen, but now I have something to look forward to, he's my favorite actor from the younger generation :)

As for the ML, I'm not a big fan of his acting but I guess I'd have to bear with him because the story is very engrossing so far. Yes, the cinematography is truly spectacular. I heard that some Chinese netizens are comparing this drama to the Wire (on hbo), not sure if it'll live up to it in terms of cultural impact but the story gives me similar feels.
I really need to watch more movies from ZYM's filmography, thank you for all these excellent recs!

I haven't finished watching yet but got a bit spoiled about later episodes because my bilibili feed keeps recommending me videos with Qin Jun Jie and afaik he happened to guest-star in this drama. However, I don't see him listed in the cast neither here nor on douban. Is his appearance a big plot twist? I only know he'll play a bad guy, hope it won't ruin my viewing experience, love this actor :3

Ahh same here! After finishing Tender Light I'm hunting after dramas with similar dark aesthetics and this one looks very promising.

omg the shot of the ML wearing a hannibal-like mask is gorgeous, can't wait to see his moral struggle!

Got it, thank you for explaining!
Recently as it seems, the movie with the ML 週處除三害 was doing well in China, I'll keep my fingers crossed that this drama will be released this year to capitalize on the movie success.

Sorry to ping you again, I just checked this drama on douban and it says that the release date is now postponed to 2026.
It's really frustrating because I hoped we could at least get a trailer or something.. so I was wondering what source mentioned this drama as being expected to air this summer?

AvX has become so toxic these last years, before she provided interesting insights into chinese culture and poetry but now she just hates on dramas and actors.
Sometimes i use her videos as a litmus test: if she dislikes a drama for petty reasons, i might actually enjoy it, lol
The recent exception was Heroes (天行健) that she recommended but tbf this drama is very underrated and difficult to dislike.
I really wish the cdrama coverage on youtube wasn't dominated by one person :(

Hope this will air soon because I don't know what to do with my life after finishing Heroes (天行健).

I don't often watch modern stuff but it's directed and written by the same crew and has most of the cast of Heroes, so I'm seated!

wow, this drama looks like a hidden gem, thanks for putting it on my radar!

Li Jian is also one the leads and his acting in the Knockout really impressed me, so i'll definitely check this out.

thank you so much for all these excellent recs! Qin Junjie looks gorgeous with a Manchu hairstyle, can't wait to watch him in another Qing drama. Yes! i also got the same vibes from Fearless Blood, both dramas are a lot of fun to watch :)

Could anyone please recommend another Qing dynasty drama that isn't a palace drama?
This one is really refreshing and unique because so many other dramas set in this period are about palace intrigues and fights between concubines.

I really like how they alternate between different opening intros depending on the episode.. the first 3 episodes have this amazing vintage-looking sequence that reminded me of the hbo opening of succession. I wonder if any real historical footage was used to create this one, it looks amazing ^^

She was incredible in Tender Light, one of the most impactful performances I've ever seen.