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I watched up to halfway with dream of splendor, and i really loved the acting and story, but at the time was not in the mood for angst, which is why it remains perpetually half watched lol. But chen xiao and liu yifei are amazing actors that have a depth to their acting, which makes them feel refreshing in an era of wooden actors.
Lost you forever is on my watch list since quite a lot of people have said that despite not liking some of the actors in previous roles they really liked them here, which piques my curiosity, yang zi is an actress that while i don't have any particular issues with hasn't fully wowed me with her acting that much, which is why when I'm free to invest time into it i'll give lost you forever a watch.
Luo yunxi is an excellent actor I agree, I think hes just had bad luck with scripts. Like the major thing that saved love is sweet and till the end of the moon for me was the chemistry of the actors which helped me stick through when the plot was draging, or even just straight up abysmal like with love is sweet. like i dropped love is sweet 2 episodes in but came back to finish it after being broken by till the end of the moon lol.
I'm not that familar with zhang wan yis acting, but ive heard hes pretty good.are you the one having similar scores on both douban and mdl raised my eyebrows as well since douban is very harsh on idol dramas, which gives me an incentive to check it out.

Having spent time watching a lot of cdramas i'm familar with the use of traffic stars over more seasoned actors, the major negative about most idol dramas is despite having good costuming, ost, cgi, they massively suffer when it comes to what actually counts, which is the script and acting. very few id say have genuinely good acting alongside a decent script.
I've actually seen story of ming lan, though this was a few years ago, and it continues to be my favorite historical simply just for how well developed the characters were and despite how long the show is, i couldn't help wanting more.
I'm definitely more picky with the shows i watch now, and i think i've shifted more to less romance heavy shows for this reason, as the main issue tends to be the use of cliches to further the story than anything else.
i think with cdramas its tragic because if they just invested in better scripts and got this traffic stars acting lessons things would be so much better. but i'm beginning to think that a lot of people dont care about a show actually being good more than they care that if theyre fave just looks hot on screen.
regardless of my gripes however i do love c dramas and sometimes you find a gem among rocks!
thanks for the comment!

yeah shes right and wrong to some extent, ive never seen the highly theatrical rivalry as seen in television/movies/online in real life, but women getting along is something that varies also, to say women always get along tends to be the same as saying women never get along in my opinion; as it both tends to view women's experiences as a monolith.
In truth the experiences of women can be very different as, shocker, women are people with complex lives lol.
i think though having more stories where women uplift women are important though, especially in a time where feminism is still not taken that seriously, so i appreciate the writer wanting to create that type of story.