Bocai

Have you seen Ni Dahong in All is Well and Always on the Move? He's not complex or hateful in those. He plays a gangster grandpa in The Knockout too lol. A veteran actor that's been in two Zhang Yimou films.

What happens after the kissing scene is a letdown. He's so mean to her. He's going off to war and could die and he doesn't even glance at her. I get he's mad, but dayum that's cold. But, really he's throwing a hissy fit.

There aren't pronouns in spoken mandarin. She, he, and it are all the same when spoken. The written versions of she, he, and it are pronouns. There are gendered words in spoken mando like grandma and grandpa which even denote which side of the family they're from. They also have words for 'girl' and 'boy' so having pronouns isn't really necessary. They'll call each other by their titles, names, and kinship terms (i.e. brother). Sometimes you'll hear them say "gu niang" which is like "noble girl" and can serve the same function as saying "miss."

100%. Your last paragraph is so on point because modern audiences (and even myself) would not like if the ML in a romance drama had multiple concubines and was regularly sleeping with them while still being "devoted" to the FL. I swear it would just turn into "Raise the Red Lantern." Because devotion and love in modern times typically means monogamy and that's why we see so many MLs refuse to take concubines in the romance dramas.

This drama is interesting. All of the characters, even our leads, are morally gray regarding ideas about women and romance. Take Liang Xiang as the first example (episode 15). So the Japanese drill master is getting sent to war (Russo-Japanese War). He invites Liang Xiang to a brothel/tea house. And when Liang Xiang walks in Hirata is surrounded by courtesans and one’s on his lap while he’s groping her. Hirata laments about his last moments of bachelorhood and tries to get Liang Xiang to join, but Liang Xiang refuses and says, “Poor Miss Yoshiko,” who is the woman Hirata is about to wed. Later in the same episode, Liang Xiang goes and violates Shuhong. So he draws the line at cheating, but violating women is okay?

Now for Tianbai and Shuhong. They're not actually in love, and Tianbai never truly cared for Shuhong the way he should. He cared about the revolution more than her. If he truly loved and cared for her, he wouldn't have put her in the situation that made her a fugitive in the first place. He continually drags her back into danger, and even her brother-in-law thinks she should help with the arms deal. Yet, on the flip side of the coin, Mr. Kanyama adamantly tells Shuhong that women have no place in revolutions. I digress. At times, Tianbai does show care for Shuhong, like when he stayed up all night to help her cut the fabric. He also says that she will have a better life at the school for girls in Tokyo, so he does let her go, but comes back to ask for money and other favors while she's there. Truly, she should have left him long ago, but I'm not convinced he'd let her go because she's too useful. His masculinity is so fragile at this point that he gets upset with her for being violated, having watched the whole thing and done nothing. I think that initial attraction they had, followed by a little Stockholm Syndrome, and then trauma bonding sealed their fate.

Finally, Yang Kaizhi cared more for the revolution than love. Joo Hee wasn't aware of his priorities, nor do I think he actually thought it through. If he really cared for her, he would have thought about what to do if she got engaged to someone else and then decided whether to elope with her or let her go. Instead, he asked for a few days to think about it, and then they ended up splitting because they couldn't agree on what to do, and the few days he asked for didn't exist.

So, here we are, and none of the men in this drama are green flags. The lives of these women are truly pitiful. Sexist remark, after sexist remark, this drama, unlike idol dramas, refuses to impose modern gender equality onto characters from eras where women were owned by men.

Non-idol dramas can be some of the best, especially because the actors really get into their roles and are willing to look ugly on screen. The Rebel was one of my favs

I see where you're coming from, but I think it's hard to judge without knowing the laws and knowing what's going on on set. Also, props like puppets can be used to depict dead animals, same with what they do for corpses in movies.

There was a scene in A Journey to Love where the character ran the horse so far and hard that it was practically dead by the time the character got to the next tavern and took the tavern owner's horse as to continue trying to send a letter asap. I didn't particularly like their display of animal cruelty for the plot. Sometimes I also see them jerk the reins or not let up on the lead enough and that's bothersome.

It's just their way of saying "No animals were harmed in the making of this film." But instead it's directing viewers as to why they're being shown this thing and that doing said thing is bad. They also have these little warnings in scenes involving drugs, littering, drunk driving, etc.

It's exactly that!

When Wuniang says she can do everything Ban Xia can do while trying to convince Xuanye to let her replace Ban Xia, yet I specifically remember Wuniang saying she can't swallow. Girl is not making a very convincing argument haha. Forgive my crude humor lol

I can't decide whether the scriptwriters have them gaslighting her too much or if it's peak gaslighting lol

It's so blatant, like there's no way the writers didn't know what they were doing!

When the Demon Lord is talking to Tanyin in episode 25, it really just sounds like he’s threatening her with some ropes and other stuff during seggsy time lol

He said, “Tell me, how should I punish you, the person in my dream. Do you think I’ll kill you? That would be too easy for you. I want to destroy you. I want to see what’s hidden beneath your perfect goddess appearance. I want to taste every bit of you, strip you down piece by piece, drop by drop. Humiliation, torment, devourment – I want you to never be able to reincarnate! Don’t be afraid. Maybe you’ll enjoy it.”

OMG same I assumed it was male lead and then the camera changed angles.

please add a spoiler tag

It's an adaptation of the Thai drama

Yeah, only after he smashed the room though

God, her manager is awful. Episode 17 when he's telling her to solve the issue with her ex-boyfriend who is staying at the hotel but also harassing her. Excuse me, Sir but someone is harassing your employee but you care more about pleasing a VIP and your image than you do about your own people.

You've really never heard of people finding out they had another sibling on ancestry or 23andme that their parents never told them about? It happens more often than you might think.

Chen Xinhai has been fantastic!