LanLan

Oh yes I forgot about that scene! Damn it just leak everything!! 😂

I love the change they made in this vs the version in the novel of their first time. My heart feels satisfied now, but would it be pushing it to ask for the full tub scene to be leaked too 🥹🥹

With all the new censorship rules happening, I wonder how they're going to film "that scene" in a way that will bring the emotional intensity of the novel onto the screen.

It seems the editor may have leaked it. I'm amazed how they paused in between for the cut lip makeup to be applied to then pick right back up and still kept the emotions going. Just the efforts that went into enacting this scene deserves for it to be shown. What a great New Year gift 🥰.
For anyone that can access weibo videos:
https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:4862344090812475?from=old_pc_videoshow

I feel the same as you about the extra potential it could’ve had if it weren’t for the editing. One of these days when I have the time, I’m going to stitch all those cut BTS snippets and scenes into the actual episodes for the absolutely necessary scenes, which is almost everything after episode 16, just so I don’t have to use as much imagination if I rewatch 😄

Just imagine, someone out there, beside the director, has their hands on that complete uncut down version. Most likely the one who was tasked with editing. Lucky soul lol.

This is accurate. There are history books that write about eunuchs’ influence in ancient China. This article gives a good intro if you’re curious: https://multimedia.scmp.com/culture/article/2155959/forbidden-city/life/chapter_02.html

I'm sure the experience of watching it in one go will be different. My mom binged the first 24 episodes continuously and didn't even notice if anything was cut when I asked her.

Unchained Love's collected data summary of achievements as of Jan 19th, 2023 in China.

Unchained Love stands as TOP1 for an A-level drama in the history of iQIYI, with an ad impression rate of 100% (all 36 episodes contained vip advertisements).
The drama has gained a S+ drama’s returns from the investment of an A-level drama.

Web data achievements of Unchained Love: (It had been online for 24 days as of 1/19)
-The most popular A-level drama in the history of iQIYI TOP1
-The first A-level drama from iQIYI to achieve 9,000 heat index, with highest to date(1/19) heat index of 9,057 with no recommendations (I’m assuming from their homepage)
-Yunhe’s list of online dramas for 11 days as TOP1
-Kuyun web broadcast popularity list for 19 days as TOP1
-iQIYI overseas version globally in TOP1: North America, Canada, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, as well as a few other regions
-TOP1 popularity in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan

Investment capacity
-iQIYI’s TOP1 drama with the number of brand endorsements
-Brand endorsements for the entire drama reached up to 21
-On the first day of broadcast, there were 6 ad placements throughout the opening and ending (this was why fans insisted that everyone watched through the intro and outro when they tried to pull up its heat index)

Word of mouth results
-Opening score of 7.3 on Douban with 10,000+ ratings (sadly it has dropped to 6.8 now)
-iQIYI officially certified dark horse drama
-China movie channel certified explosive drama

Online hot topic
-The 2nd iQIYI drama to break 9,800 popularity index on Maoyan in 2022
-TOP1 in all 8 web ranking lists during its first week of airing
-Vlinkage data surpassed 80 within 8 days
-Vlinkage data entered TOP1 within 9 days
-The winner out of 3 historical web dramas airing at the same time in December. Maoyan index reached TOP1 for 16 days
-Chinese TikTok’s web drama hot list for 3 weeks with 4.48 billion views of all episodes’ hashtags.
-TOP1 of Weibo’s influential drama list for 23 days
-TOP1 in Lighthouse network’s list of web drama discussion topics for 22 days

Popularity of Wang Heidi’s character, Xiao Duo
-CCTV certification [1 year] double traffic explosion
-Vlinkage personal index broke 9 for 22 consecutive days.
-Vlinkage highest index was 9.15
-Vlinkage personal index TOP1 for 17 days
-Vlinkage character to break 9 fastest in 2022
-WeChat index broke 100 million in 15 days, TOP1 actor
-Xiao Duo hashtags increased by 300 million views each day on Chinese TikTok
-Xiao Duo on popular character list for 21 consecutive days as TOP1 on Maoyan
-#wanghedifutuyuan# had 5 billion views and 20.51 millions discussions
-#wanghedixiaoduo# had 3.5 billion views and 16.66 million discussions
-During broadcast period, WHD’s Tiktok gained 1.6 million followers and TOP1 actor
-During broadcast period, WHD’s Weibo gained 660,000 followers, and TOP1 actor
-Baidu index’s peak actor TOP1 during its broadcast

I got these from a WHD's fan account so there wasn't any data for CYQ.

For anyone interested in knowing how Unchained Love performed in China, it still did amazingly well even if we didn't end up reaching the 10,000 heat index.

He was a villain I was truly freaked out by and afraid for the protagonists' safety. I usually find most drama villains to be unintimidating and laughable.

WHD's movie and then the Ingenious One if it gives a good first impression. Chong Zi might be interesting as well. I'm also hoping either Never Give Up or Our Southwest General University will air as the timing now seems appropriate and they both already passed censorship.

I've seen quite a few posts on Weibo towards the end of the drama where the casual viewers were praising the UL fandom because it gave them such a pleasant viewing experience. When they're watching the episodes, the live comments were generally focused on what was going on with the plots. If anyone had criticisms about the characters, none of Dylan's or Yukee's fans retorted and let them be free to voice their opinions. There was generally minimal fans of Dylan's previous cp coming to attack Yukee as well, which seems to be a common occurrence in most high traffic actors' dramas with strong cp fanbases. The same also showed on all their social platforms related to UL. So people who weren't his fans before have now started following him just because of this.

Yes, exactly. It gave me the closure I need as well.

Yeah, this is an alternate modern universe. They own a "Script Kill" shop where people come to immerse in murder solving mystery role-playing games. The current theme is "The Temptation of the Chief" 😂. He was working, she comes home and he asked her if he could get off work early to go play ball. He said he already memorized the script, he's just waiting for her to add the ending. Then she said "I have," and he thought she meant the ending. Then she rubbed her stomach and said, "I have it", which can also be interpreted as "I'm expecting". She asked: "Are you still going to play ball?" He said: "Not anymore." Then his voice over said: "There's definitely another era where there's no class differences, no imperial power, no emperors, princes, empresses, or concubines, and masters or servants. Maybe there's another you and another me living freely in one corner of the world."

OMG this is the cutest thing ever! 🤣🤣 And she's 🤰🏻 I hope iqiyi will add this to their app for international viewers to see as well.

UNCHAINED LOVE EXTRA STORY:
https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:4860169159639066?from=old_pc_videoshow

And in keeping with tradition, the kiss was cut 😂
This kiss: https://youtu.be/ElE_HlAl1XM

Wang Hedi, Dylan's name.

And that's a wrap. After some time reflecting on the drama as a whole, I'm satisfied with the ending. Poignant and contemplative about breaking free from the chains of oppressive power and to live the life one wants. Most importantly, our precious leads got their HE. There were some holes in the writing and choppy editing due to excessive cutting hindering the flow of the story, but it's still a solid 8.5 in my list of dramas I've watched and a great start to 2023 in Cdramaland.

This was the most participative I've ever been chasing a live drama and it was a blast. Thank you everyone here for all the fun discussions and always keeping things light and positive in this section. See you in another WHD drama in the future, as he seems to be the only one who can pull me out of my cave to join in the discussions 😁🌷💖

From an artistic pov, the ending shot they chose to air was very poignant and I think it's appropriate to the main theme of the story.

Extended ending:
https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:4860107427872818?from=old_pc_videoshow

Ending BTS
https://weibo.com/tv/show/1034:4860080177479771?from=old_pc_videoshow