Jiang Xue Ning, a Mary Sue ? 😂😂😂😂We must not have the same definition for Mary Sue…But apart from…
FWIW shes being called a Mary Sue on all the Chinese boards like Douban and Weibo, I'm pretty much just explaining what it means. Mary Sue dramas are definitely a thing in Cdramaland https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue
Mary Sues are not flawless but they are characters who mysteriously get the love of all the other characters even if it doesn't make sense, e.g. even when JXN's pouch is picked up by her nemesis Xue Shu, the nemesis wants to work with her despite admitting that she tried to harm her before? Also she's a terrible student but all her teachers get sacked? Lol it's stuff that never happens in real life. The most illogical thing is how the Princess treats her like a Princess (giving her gifts etc) and we rarely see anyone vie for the Princess' hand in marriage unlike JXN because she isn't the main character lol. There was a scene where the Princess goes "you are so pretty even I am falling for you" that Chinese viewers were saying is awkward because The Princess is objectively prettier and nobody talks like that?
Jiang Xue Ning, a Mary Sue ? 😂😂😂😂We must not have the same definition for Mary Sue…But apart from…
In Chinese, Mary Sue 玛丽苏 refers to characters with that everyone loves and helps even though it makes 0 sense? In SOKP it's very obvious e.g. Princess Shen Ziyi falls for JXN in both lives no matter what she tries to do to avoid it.
People must stop comparing Scent of Time to Kunning Palace because it is not similar at all, I saw another post where someone said they dislike the SOT FL because she came back and still was a "bad person" but the MAIN DIFFERENCE is the SOT FL was born into a family of evildoers who implicated her in her 2nd life too, and she got reborn to her wedding night so at that point she had already committed the "evils" and needed to scheme her way out of the mess of her past life, repair the damage of tricking her groom and work against her own evil dad, misogynist mom and pervert brother. If Rebirth tropes are a game then SOT is hard mode since all her family members are pretty horrible even her cousin.
Whereas in KunNing, JXN is reborn into a clean slate and could start afresh, free of any mistakes. Her family is nice, half sister is kind, her mum is biased but harmless. If Jiang Xuening was reborn again on her wedding night to Shen Jie after they completed the rites, then yes SOKP is kinda similar to Scent of Time. Also Jiang Xuening is a Mary Sue so everyone falls for her and likes her maybe except her mother, whereas in Scent of Time the FL realizes everyone thinks she's a schemer and hates her family for their evilness so she needs to undo all the wrongs before they get retribution since she got dealt a shitty hand again in her 2nd life.
If you watched SOT and can't even see the obvious difference between the 2 works, I really wonder what you watched and if you analysed hard enough...
Scent of Time and Story of Kunning are too similar and released back to back; but personally ai think Story of…
Scent of Time has a lower budget and lesser known novel (probably A-tier investment since the leads are newbies) and KunNing was hyped more and has some novel fans , but in general ancient rebirth tropes are very trendy now. Lost Track of Time came out last year, then Scent of Time and Kunning Palace this year. Zhang Linghe is filming ANOTHER rebirth drama The Grand Princess with Angel Zhao, and Rebirth of the Star General starring Zhou Ye is getting filmed soon too. Another one is Di Mou apparently Tan Jian Ci has been cast as the ML.
It's a trope I love and am not sick of so more the merrier!
If you want the video recipe for the traditional dessert Xiewei made https://youtu.be/jj3dxS8c7Mg it's called walnut slice cake 桃片糕 or cloud slice cake 云片糕 because it looks/tastes like a piece of cloud lol
yep. he’s the only one that calls her that and it kind of shows he has a soft spot for her considering no one…
No Xiewei doesn't call her 宁儿 aka Ning-ér (tone 2) but 宁二 (Ning-èr tone 4) aka Ning 2nd because she is the 2nd daughter of her family. The tone is a giveaway.
I definitely had to do a double take the first time he said it lol, but the Chinese subtitles show 宁二 plus he says it even when they aren't familiar in episode 1. If he went around calling her Ning-ér despite being practically strangers everyone will think he's creepy including JXN😂
FYI Zhou Ye has starred in an Oscar-nominated film Better Days, as the main bully antagonist and got nominated…
Better Days is a great film about school bullying, more people should watch it! A Chinese film getting Oscars nods is really rare due to the politics, they liked it because it shows the dark side of the schooling system.
Zhou Ye also became known in mainstream China as "Wei Lai", the leads were famous but it was Zhou Ye's debut work so her career got a boost. Playing Gu Xiang in WOH also helped since BL fans are everywhere. If she wasn't so memorable in side character roles, she wouldn't get opportunities to be a lead actress. Both Better Days and WOH were her debut projects and she did well enough to make the roles memorable.
I am a big fan of Rebirth of Malicious Empress of Military Lineage except for the last arc of the story which…
It will still be very popular, IMO it's the most interesting plotline of the currently airing dramas? It's dark and scheming, and Bailu is popular enough with Running Man so people will watch it for sure.
I don't think Zhou Ye's acting is impressive. Cheng Lei's abilities are beyond her. He deserves better. But well,…
FYI Zhou Ye has starred in an Oscar-nominated film Better Days, as the main bully antagonist and got nominated for Best Supporting Actresss at the Golden Rooster Awards (China's main film award show) and AFA for it. IIRC she got nominated for another Golden Rooster Best Supporting Actress in Chinese Doctors where she played a mother. Most of her top acting has been in films.
I don't think Ryan Cheng has had as much experience as her and it's very rude to claim he's a better actor when he was doing short dramas til recently. Until he has a big role in a film nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars you just can't say Zhou Ye is worse lol. At least the Academy Awards have seen her acting in a movie and approved of it yes?
All the actresses you mentioned are now a little too old to be playing an 18.y.o character. Much less believable…
That's why I mentioned 5 years ago lol. Personally I think Zhou Ye (already did Scent of Time and is casted for Rebirth of a Star General), Wang Churan, and Song Zuer (Legally Romance was a rebirth drama too i guess) suit the role too but Bai Lu isn't a great fit for palace dramas because they are extremely classical dialogue heavy? In One and Only she was dubbed too and played a mute.
Are you Chinese? You said this drama is not going to be a smash hit but it is trending on weibo and bilibili.…
Most dramas trend when airing, even Bailu's modern drama is trending too along with Wonderland of Love. Smash hit means something like TTEOTM or LYF level ratings (both couldn't beat The Knockout which is the #1 hit of 2023) or LLTG/LBFTD from 2022, or if we're talking palace dramas, see idol drama classics Yanxi Palace or Scarlet Heart? I'm not even talking about serious Palace drama hits like Legend of Zhen Huan which is regularly quoted and meme'd https://youtube.com/shorts/MwU-wOkLQyY even in 2023 because the lines are so classic and delivered perfectly. Betty Sun was 28 when she filmed Zhen Huan (this is often mentioned online by Cnetz) aka Bai Lu's age, that's whats meant by a decent palace drama lol
To make a good Palace drama, the diction and enunciation must be spot on because the entire drama is carried by talking i.e. petty squabbling, whispering, scheming and plotting. There is no CGI & fight scenes like in Wuxia & Xianxia. If the dialogue of the leads sounds bad to Chinese fluent folks then the whole drama drops sharply in quality even if it's meant to be a fluffy Palace flick?
Among the younger generation of actors, folks like Leo Luo, Deng Lun, Yang Zi (Ashes of Love was a hit due to it) have impeccable voice skills to carry a Palace drama that is classical dialogue-heavy, same goes for Zhang Wanyi, Tan Jianci, Song Zuer, Mao Xiaotong, Steven Zhang.
Of course, my review won't apply to viewers who read subtitles and don't mind weird/overtly modern diction lol
He looks old and has a role that's "hefty" but he's acting is kinda green in that everyone can tell he's still a newbie in Cdramas. You have to suspend your disbelief a bit when the white-haired dudes bow to him as the Grand Preceptor, and that's because he's too green as an actor to have that scholarly wellread heft (e.g. younger Jeremy Tsui, Liu Xueyi or Leo Luo), so he seems just like a very mean teacher lol.
I completely agree with you in terms of BL and ZLH's voice dubbing. I'm glad that they're using their own voices…
Yes I like the story which means I will keep watching it! I'm not hating at all, I even replay the scenes because I can't really hear what they are saying or feel the emotion of their lines (ZLH sounds stiff) if I am looking at my laptop or phone which playing it on TV. Personally the bar for excellence in acting and doing dialogue-heavy genres is: One needs to be able to understand the lines by ear without staring at the TV or using subtitles. You simply will not win or be nominated for any Big 3 TV awards if Chinese people need to read subtitles to understand what you are saying lol
Mary Sues are not flawless but they are characters who mysteriously get the love of all the other characters even if it doesn't make sense, e.g. even when JXN's pouch is picked up by her nemesis Xue Shu, the nemesis wants to work with her despite admitting that she tried to harm her before? Also she's a terrible student but all her teachers get sacked? Lol it's stuff that never happens in real life. The most illogical thing is how the Princess treats her like a Princess (giving her gifts etc) and we rarely see anyone vie for the Princess' hand in marriage unlike JXN because she isn't the main character lol. There was a scene where the Princess goes "you are so pretty even I am falling for you" that Chinese viewers were saying is awkward because The Princess is objectively prettier and nobody talks like that?
Whereas in KunNing, JXN is reborn into a clean slate and could start afresh, free of any mistakes. Her family is nice, half sister is kind, her mum is biased but harmless. If Jiang Xuening was reborn again on her wedding night to Shen Jie after they completed the rites, then yes SOKP is kinda similar to Scent of Time. Also Jiang Xuening is a Mary Sue so everyone falls for her and likes her maybe except her mother, whereas in Scent of Time the FL realizes everyone thinks she's a schemer and hates her family for their evilness so she needs to undo all the wrongs before they get retribution since she got dealt a shitty hand again in her 2nd life.
If you watched SOT and can't even see the obvious difference between the 2 works, I really wonder what you watched and if you analysed hard enough...
It's a trope I love and am not sick of so more the merrier!
English subbed version https://youtu.be/0iV0qI_mUEg
https://youtu.be/eVWJ0-wAa5c
I definitely had to do a double take the first time he said it lol, but the Chinese subtitles show 宁二 plus he says it even when they aren't familiar in episode 1. If he went around calling her Ning-ér despite being practically strangers everyone will think he's creepy including JXN😂
Zhou Ye also became known in mainstream China as "Wei Lai", the leads were famous but it was Zhou Ye's debut work so her career got a boost. Playing Gu Xiang in WOH also helped since BL fans are everywhere. If she wasn't so memorable in side character roles, she wouldn't get opportunities to be a lead actress. Both Better Days and WOH were her debut projects and she did well enough to make the roles memorable.
I don't think Ryan Cheng has had as much experience as her and it's very rude to claim he's a better actor when he was doing short dramas til recently. Until he has a big role in a film nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars you just can't say Zhou Ye is worse lol. At least the Academy Awards have seen her acting in a movie and approved of it yes?
To make a good Palace drama, the diction and enunciation must be spot on because the entire drama is carried by talking i.e. petty squabbling, whispering, scheming and plotting. There is no CGI & fight scenes like in Wuxia & Xianxia. If the dialogue of the leads sounds bad to Chinese fluent folks then the whole drama drops sharply in quality even if it's meant to be a fluffy Palace flick?
Among the younger generation of actors, folks like Leo Luo, Deng Lun, Yang Zi (Ashes of Love was a hit due to it) have impeccable voice skills to carry a Palace drama that is classical dialogue-heavy, same goes for Zhang Wanyi, Tan Jianci, Song Zuer, Mao Xiaotong, Steven Zhang.