newgrl

"I was even considering to let Yushi and Gao Yu get married, before the scriptwriters forcibly blackened him."

The scriptwriter did no such thing though. Gao Yu was jealous and petty from the very beginning. I'm not saying he didn't have his good side, but it was pretty obvious once Shu Yi was involved in the plot with both Gao Yu and Qin Lie that he felt he had to play dirty to get the girl.

Here's my suggestion (from my experience) when watching these long Cdramas with 100+ characters.
1. Open the "Cast & Crew" link here at MDL in one tab.
2. Search up the Wikipedia article on the drama and open that in another tab.

MDL will help you put names to faces and the Wiki article will often separate the characters into their tribe/city/sect/whatever and have a small blurb about them describing the character. You can also tell a bit better if someone's important or not by where they fall (from top to bottom) in the list of characters on the Wiki page. This trick go me through many a long drama and for the historicals, it is sometimes fun to look up the real people associated with the characters to get some background.

I love that Xu Bin spent almost the entire drama with ink stains on the side of his neck. It was an interesting attention to detail.

"Nirvana in Fire" is probably the most well known and well loved Historical. "Joy of Life" is more Wuxia than Historical, but excellent. "The Story of Ming Lan" and "Goodbye My Princess" are also excellent.

Call me a masochist, but I like the cheesy CGI and the weird editing.

Man... the woman playing the part of Senior Sister in Yezi's sect on the mountain is really really pretty. Like, strikingly beautiful. Anyone know who she is?

:):) .... in my best River Song (Dr. Who) voice, "spooooiiilers" :)
Keep watching...

What kind of sign would you like? Not sure what you're looking for, but I can tell you this and "Joy of Life" are my two favorite Cdramas ever made and they're both in my top five list of my favorite dramas ever made from any country. I've been watching Southeast Asian dramas for about 14 years now. It's amazing. Watch it.

I just meant that the two different actors looked at the role differently and played the role differently. By changing the lead actor, Season 2 had a decidedly different feel than Season 1, even without the weirdly different story line.

I saw "Ever Night" both 1&2. I think I liked Season 2 a little better than you, but when even the lead actor changes from Season 1 to 2 and they're trying to tell the same story, I totally see your point.

So, another drama in the same universe that the writers created? I'm down with that. But a 2nd season with the same setting and same characters? Nah. I really appreciate that Asian dramas are one-season-and-out, before they get stale or boring, or the writing gets lazy.

I hate how titles are translated to the person's name. I've always thought that it is kind of interesting how almost no one in Korean society seems to be called by their name. It took me watching several dramas to figure out what some of these titles mean and where they were in the pecking order. Sometimes, those titles mean something when they're said by a certain character at a certain time. It can make the show confusing if you don't just Romanticize the title and put it in the translation.

Agreed. The reason I started watching Kdramas in the first place is because Western media tends to let a good show disintegrate into lazy, uninteresting storytelling and then cancel it on some cliffhanger. It is so annoying. Now that Netflix is making, arguably pretty good Kdramas, they've decided to take this Western media approach that they can milk some show as a cash-cow until it comes to an unsatisfying ending. I like that the stories that Netflix Kdramas have decided to tell are a bit more bloody and/or romance-y than the typical G-rated Kdrama, but the cliffhangers (or completely non-existent ending like "The Silent Sea") have got to stop. A Kdrama is one-single season with a beginning where the characters and story are introduced, a middle where all the action happens, and a CONCLUSION. Even if there is a second season, there is a completely different story, like "Stranger" or "Voice". Kdramas tell one self-contained story in a season, Netflix. I wish they would stop this nonsense. It's annoying as all git out.

Oh thank you! I'm on episode 34 and thinking of everything that yet has to happen.... waiting for season 2's in Cdrama-land is a game of patience. So just really thanks!

Ok. I'm just starting this and I have to say, whoever illustrated the title sequence deserves an award. It's stunning.

Without this, I'm pretty sure I would have hurt someone.

I have no idea why I bother with them either, but for some reason I do. I think I like the fact that not everything in these dramas is all roses and sunshine and... I don't know... maybe money rich? From the houses they film in to the clothes they wear to the dramas themselves, nothing at all screams "everything here in the Philippines is roses"!

However, I would sincerely appreciate more effort put into the scripts and production. I've seen way better student projects filmed on iPhones and such without the need of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. And just because you are not rolling in dough, it doesn't mean you have to write like a 12-year-old. People don't repeat the same phrase over and over again when speaking with each other. And just because you don't have money for costumes, it doesn't mean you should actually wear dirty clothes to film.

Some of these dramas are just completely and utterly unintentionally hilarious. Like I'm laughing at all the wrong things. I just wish they would make a bit more effort in what they're doing and I would honestly be a fan.

Welcome to South Korean BLs? That's pretty standard for the boylove genre from Korea. One day... I have faith... we will get a full Kdrama BL. Light On Me is the longest one right now.

It hasn't started yet. It starts on February 3rd and will be aired on both Viki and Bilibili (depending upon which part of the world you're in.)

Nope. Fortunately / Unfortunately (depending upon your opinion of these VERY VERY low budget and low effort dramas) the whole mess has been moved to Direk Cyruz TV's Youtube Channel. Enjoy??
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJKhYC5_XAFJ2sl9XjOcedg