melontea

When this drama was airing, many Chinese viewers actually preferred the guest actress who played the female lead at the beginning over the real lead actress. They liked her acting more, as well as her understanding of the heroine and her chemistry with the male lead.

Also, while Ju Jingyi has a big fanbase, she gets criticized by non-fans for being vain/caring too much about looking perfect all the time instead of, you know, just acting.

So, while the Chinese audience likes their female leads to be beautiful in xianxia and historical dramas, beauty means little if their acting skills are not up to par which is why it is absolutely fair to criticize this drama for the actress switch.

Pretty sure there's a subtle filter over her face in this drama. That plus the completely different styling is why she doesn't look the same as in TLP.
I could spot a filter in TLP too, but it was applied really inconsistently. I guess the post-production people weren't being paid enough, lol.

Thanks for sharing your opinion! I assumed from the cover picture that it's another one of those trashy/badly written mini dramas not worth watching and it seems my assumption is right.

This actress has Eurasian, not European, features. In my country, she would be considered "exotic". Definitely not a typical European face around here.

This looks bad 😯 Props to her for still being able to act.

Westerners are usually treated well in Asia.

I've also only ever had good experiences there, but I know it's sadly not the same for actual natives, many of whom want to leave their homeland and come to the West. That's why for example there are many Thai women in my country (in Europe) and all of them are married to a Western man.

I know you're probably just joking, but being of Western ("white") origin is a huge advantage and privilege you would miss if you were really reincarnated as an Asian woman.

I don't think so. This article is very obviously written from an international perspective 😆

C-dramas are more popular than J-doramas among people who are interested in Asian shows that's why there are more articles about Chinese actors. (Of course, K-dramas are the most popular, though.) If you want to see more promotion for Japanese series, I'm pretty sure you can contribute your own articles on this website or at least submit suggestions.

Does anyone know how old Zhou Yinzhi (shady guy from Xingwu Guards) is supposed to be?

I started this drama and just can't wrap my mind around why an adult man who looks like he must be 40 constantly takes orders and acts submissive towards a girl half his age just because she's the daughter of his former boss.

Now I found out the actor who plays him is the same age as his co-actors who are playing characters 8-10 years younger than themselves, such as Bai Lu and Zhou Junwei. This might or might not mean Zhou Yinzhi is not actually 40 despite his looks but closer to 20...? 🤯

I've read that wasn't because of censorship but personal reasons.

Apparently, his parents didn't want him to do kiss scenes due to his age and image. Or who knows? Perhaps the actor himself felt uncomfortable at the thought of filming such scenes at that time.

Thanks for the reply! I'm okay with no romance but not with stories that don't make sense, lol. I won't be watching it then even though I like the FL actress.

Is this mini drama bad? And if yes, how bad? lol

Great show with good actors. A drama like this deserves better subtitles than the ones on iQIYI that are completely lacking in nuance.

It's international viewers who have a problem with age gaps, not Asia.

Chinese writers and actors are more open-minded about age gaps, considering they are the ones who make dramas where one of the leads is much older than the other. But here on MDL or Reddit, I always see international viewers complaining about it and making a big deal out of it. They will even insult other people who dare to watch age gap dramas.

By the way, the "half your age plus 7 years" rule doesn't come from Asia but from Europe.

I'm watching this solely because the male lead actor is hot as hell, lmao. The poor actress though. She's getting thrown around as if she's a doll 😂

This was a beautifully shot drama with really nice color grading! The cast had good chemistry with each other despite the short story length. Glad I stumbled upon this little gem of a mini drama 💕

Well, that's a pretty harsh comment.

Some adult women are genetically skinny or don't have a lot going on in the boob department and that's okay. Not very kind to judge them for their god-given appearance and imply they're less deserving of male attention and love.

I do think this particular actress is unusually tiny though, even compared to her female acting peers. Most of her co-actors are tall men which just emphasizes her small build. She should get paired up with a short, skinny actor for a change. Maybe then this poor actress won't get negative comments about her looks all the time 🤷‍♀️

If this drama really airs with this title, I'm going to laugh my ass off 😂

Can we please stop calling a whole country weird just because of a piece of fictional media with fictional story tropes? 🙄 Why do some fans of Asian media (C-dramas, K-pop etc.) act like that? Seriously.

No way he's just 22 🤯

I may be too old for fanwars but no one is too old to make sarcastic comments 😋

I did mock people who put male celebrities on a very high pedestal and think no woman is good enough to be partnered up with them, either in TV shows / movies or even in real life, so they post hate comments with misogynistic undertones about her looks, her background and her career.

That mentality I described exists in every fandom and for many celebrities with large fanbases. I've seen similarly judgemental comments about women who are associated with Gong Jun, Wang Yibo, Wang Hedi and popular Korean boy groups, just to name a few examples. My intention wasn't to "single out" people who like Xiao Zhan but to criticize this particular mentality.

Since you aren't one of those people, my comments above weren't about you. Have a nice day or evening 👍