LanLan

MJTY actually made me notice and become a fan of his acting and SKOP made me a bigger fan. Before that I only thought of him as a pretty face and didn't pay much attention to any of his dramas. After going through "archeology" and watching all his past works I actually think he does subtle emotions very well, especially with his eyes and the control of his facial muscles. This is especially commendable for someone who only debuted less than four years ago, without graduating from an acting school. Too bad we can't post videos here, otherwise I'd share variety of cuts as examples.

As for this drama, it hasn't aired yet but you're already negatively judging his acting. Please reserve judgments until after the drama is shown. If you've watched the teaser from the wrap up video of this drama, you'll notice that during the transitions of the 3 stages of Pei Wenxuan and the princess while they were playing chess, in each stage of their lives, his posture and temperament were noticeably different based on how strained or comfortable their relationship was. So you're right, acting isn't just showing emotions on your face, it's also in how an actor carries himself based on that character's set up. Every character that ZLH takes on, he would write paragraphs upon paragraphs of analysis of that character, so I also disagree that he just throws on a costume and read lines. I've read The Grand Princess twice and I'm confident ZLH will be able to pull off this character well.

I just read it and to be honest it is pretty basic. In novel form it's fine because there's a lot of internal introspection but on screen they might need to amp up and flesh out some of the plot lines. A lot of the dramatic bits were only mentioned in passing and glossed over. I think if the team go the route of healing slice of life in the style of Kdramas then it could be very good. At least for now I can rest assure that this director has good aesthetics since he spent many years as GJM's cinematographer. The casting for the two leads are a perfect fit though. He Suye seems almost as if it's ZLH playing himself lol.

Have you watched Hidden Love? It's the same screenwriter from that drama so if you like that drama then you'll most likely like this.

Official English drama title is The Best Thing.

So the script got leaked recently and people who have read the novel seem to be very happy about how the screenplay has been adapted from the novel. They were worried because apparently the novel is written in a way that’s hard to digest. They’re also going crazy over the character build of Ji Yang. There’s going to be a segment when he loses his memory and become aloof and domineering. He's described as being a more intense version of Yan from Tiger and Crane. This makes me think of how Bai Qian acted towards Yehua after she jumped from Zhu Tian Terrace and erased her memories 😄 If iQIYI is really planning to release it in July then it means they have high hopes for it since those are hot drama months.

Gong Ziyu is the best baby in the world 😭 Fair warning though, only watch up to 42:28 of the final episode if you don't want to end up with a wretched cliffhanger.

Go watch more ZLH dramas 😜

Another one that will be explained as you watch further.

Of course! Minimizing this under the spoiler tag. The thing with past ZLH dramas that came before Love Between Fairy and Devil is that they were mostly lower budget projects so scriptwriting isn't as good as SOKP. So don't expect too much from them. I watched them mainly for him and his acting.
Here's the order of when the gifs appear from top to bottom after SOKP:
- The 2 right underneath is My Journey to You. He's really beautiful looking in that drama.
- The one with the head gear is Love Between Fairy and Devil. Loved him there even though he plays 2nd lead. The modern one next to it is called Love Crossed. He's part of the 2nd lead couple whose story I like much better than the leads'. The plot is a bit over the top, but not so unrealistic now with the current advancement of AI and VR headsets. It's fun to pass the time and I really liked his character.
- The next 2 underneath is from Flourished in Time. It's a high school drama where he plays someone that's missing a leg. There's no kiss scenes because the lead actress was only 16 at the time. This is my 2nd favorite drama of his after SOKP.
- Last row modern one is Sparkle Love. It's a college setting drama with fantasy elements and is cheesy and cringy at times, but his character is adorable if you just want to watch it for him. Next to it is Maiden Holmes, his debut drama. I found it boring but many people seems to like it.

And if you want a modern Cdrama recommendation not ZLH related, you should definitely check out Go Ahead. I'm rewatching it right now and it's still as good as the first time, so just thought I'd throw that in there.

Haha omg you can be one of their screenwriters 🤣 You know those lower budget short web dramas would totally write something like that 🤦🏻‍♀️

Oh that was meant for @bibou, I replied to your question above it :)

Yeah, like @monstersnroses said, it's only for censorship's sake. The drama made it easy to ignore that novel writer part and just take it as actual rebirth.

How far along are you? So I know how to best explain without spoiling you.

There's going to be more flashbacks about how her life was spent when she was growing up. The person who was her mother figure taught her that as a woman, in order to not be mistreated and taken advantage of, one has to be in a position of power. In the book, her birth family treated her really poorly, even after she returned home.

Accepted! ❤️

Haha thank youuu 🥰 If they can increase your love for ZLH then I am satisfied 😌. I cut them myself of memorable scenes and favorite moments from every ZLH drama I've watched. They're like trophies I'm collecting after a drama is checked off the list 😂 The Royal Princess ones are a little ahead of its time, but those fancam captures of ZLH moments were too good to leave out. Since I've read the novel and loved it, I have high hopes for the adaptation too, especially after seeing the wrap up trailer.

Yes, more flashbacks will be shown as you progress further so you'll be less confused. She was in a forced relationship with YL. It's implied that he raped her, more than once. She and XW never went further than talking.

You could open a wattpad or AO3 account and post it there. I think quite a few people were looking for fanfictions after this drama ended.

Yeah both rebirths and time travel. I've read and heard a couple of different reasons. One was religion related and another was that girls committed suicide thinking they could redo their lives like in dramas 🤷🏻‍♀️. So most of the time, these kind of stories always have to be turned into a story within a story or a dream which I hate because then it makes everything that happened pointless. SOKP did it in a way that wasn't disappointing in the end because that butterfly effect made it feel like everything did happen in an alternate universe even though she was writing a story. I really don't want Royal Princess to go the dream or it was all a hallucination route.

Exactly! It was just so odd and abrupt the way it was written and definitely not romantic or hot. I like dark romance and have read way more messed up interactions where I could at least still feel the chemistry and heat between the characters when things got spicy. I think it was because she didn't have the skill for these kind of scenes and thought writing them like that was how to do hot forced love, but all I got was creepy vibes from him. Luckily the scriptwriter was good and had good actors to carry out the scenes well so that I did feel the tension and heat on screen. ZLH somehow managed to make XW attractive during his manic love episodes. That cave scene could have easily came across as "greasy" if played by someone else.

"What'd he do, just jump up over her on his knees? Stand by her pillow on the bed? Push her halfway down the bed?"
Haha I had trouble trying to figure out the logistics of how he went from kissing to that too 😂

I've never read SK so I wouldn't know but your description reminds me why I only prefer reading sex scenes written by women authors lol.