The rating on weibo for this drama is 8.0 and on douban is 7.3 which is more important than international rating…
To add to that, the XD character has consistently been No. 1 on the Vlinkage lists every week. He’s up against Li Xian, Liu Yifei, Seven Tan, and Wang Kai’s characters from their respective dramas, which are both performing extremely well at the moment, so that’s saying something. MDL ratings only matters to us international viewers here.
But I seriously don’t get it. Why other dramas that are on air right now are showing steaming scenes and kisses???
Yeah, because it turned a project no one cared about previously from A to S+ level drama. Keep in mind this was filmed before LBFD released and he was still getting a lot of criticisms for MTD. He was not considered that popular in China during that time. S+ level drama needs extra discretion because it’ll get heavy exposure everywhere and most times get broadcasting rights to overseas. This was filmed back in June of 2021, I’m sure the production didn’t expect this either, so they just filmed whatever they wanted not knowing the outcome. Then unfortunately, the new costume drama rules also went into effect around December that led to all this cutting mess.
But I seriously don’t get it. Why other dramas that are on air right now are showing steaming scenes and kisses???
This was a screenshot message I saw from Weibo yesterday that someone posted on Douban, the full link wasn't visible so I couldn't find the original thread to read more:
"In fact, it was not easy for this drama to be aired smoothly. The trial was full of twists and turns. First, it was stuck in November because of the epidemic. After it was released, it was rejected twice because of the content and theme. In fact, it was mid-December. At that time, our project team was fully prepared for the possible postponement. It is estimated that the luck of the leading actors and our friends is very good, and the certificate was issued on 12/20. Last year, the review was particularly strict, especially for the key projects. It is ridiculous that an A-level project was changed to a key project because of the traffic(meaning Dylan's popularity due to LBFAD). The 16th (not sure what the person meant by this) is a project that my friend contacted, and it was returned and deleted after finalized. I don't know what those in charge were thinking. In fact, there is no second trial for Forbidden Love. Firstly, I am afraid that there will be changes in ancient drama's policy this year. I can say that Forbidden Love's intimate scenes are already many this year because there is no second trial."
So imo, as @mizukilla pointed out previously, it's not just because there are intimate scenes, but it's intimate scenes between a consort and eunuch(fake or otherwise) in a historical setting. As the poster mentioned, this drama entered the spotlight due to Dylan so it was considered a key project instead of a lower level drama like Uncanny Destiny, which has relatively unknown actors. However, I also think the editor went a little overboard with their cutting. Maybe they cut the post wedding kiss because there was too much lips movement and not just simple lips pressing lol.
She was trying to check if his 📦 was all there, I assume this was after the she and Tongyun find out he’s not a eunuch topic came out, then got shy at the last minute and ran away.
Wait!! What was with the bath scene? Was that real?
Yes, it was edited down from a scene that was teased before the drama released and turned into a memory for the sake of censorship https://youtu.be/w3qSA-W8gqg
I know, mine did too, but watching it over and over helps a little bit. Fans started editing the wedding scene with the longer kiss to make it more satisfactory and cnetz are callling it a new DIY way of watching drama 😂
I hope this can soothe your disappointment a teeny bit about ep 20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3qSA-W8gqg Throw all your expectations away from here on and forget about any teasers you may have seen.
I agree! I was really looking forward to the reveal that he wasn't a eunuch and I felt it was downplayed so much…
It's not the director's fault imo. You can tell based on other scenes filmed that he did a very nice job. The hanging and the hair touching bed scene were beautifully filmed. Fight scenes also look very nice and he was able to get the best out of WHD (unlike MTD's director.) The reveal was also filmed in details, based on the BTS tidbits and cuts shown. It's just unfortunate with all the cutting they've had to do that it messed it all up.
Thank you for posting this beautiful pic. At least I can see their actual kiss here
No problem. I have to insert these angles into my imagination to replay that scene in a more beautiful way in my mind. It was supposed to be a heart tugging close to a meaningful wedding scene, but the editing just made me so frustrated instead.
I didn't have much issue with the earlier cuts because it made sense for characterization purposes, but ugh! they cut everything in between today's episodes and made the poisoning and her figuring out he's a fake eunuch so random and irrelevant. Even the kiss in the pink field was cut down (can't even blame this on the censors.) I really don't get it. The revenge plot is moving forward, but everything was so choppily edited together due to the cuts so I felt no emotional connection to whatever was going on. What a pity they had to do this. And to piss off fans even more, they go and release BTS tidbits to tease them with what should've been shown. After four days of waiting and anticipating what was supposed to be shown, we got nothing.
The only highlight from these two eps for me was when XD was telling YL about how his brother ended up being a eunuch. WHD can emote really well in subtle emotional scene. Nothing needs to be exaggerated for the viewer to feel what he's feeling.
I find this so funny. Every time the official weibo account makes a new post, the same fan will reply with this same message every single time. And it would get a bunch of supportive likes each time. 1. The hero and heroine on iQIYI Scream Night! ! ! 2. Extra tidbits/cut scenes are packaged into extra episodes and released! ! ! 3. The male and female protagonists have a livestream or sweep the building together(have promotions together)! ! ! 4. The male and female protagonists do a magazine photoshoot together! ! ! 5. The male and female protagonists record a variety show to promote the drama! ! ! 6. Release the cut portions of Tianfang Water Pavilion! ! !
Yes and I believe it is possible if the development keeps improving in the second half. There has only been 7…
iQiyi has a system called "heat index" to determine the popularity of a drama based on a few different factors, not just view counts, since that could be manipulated by a user replaying a video over and over. The system takes into account how many shares a video has to social medias, live interactions, likes and comments. All the platforms have this now, but I feel like it's much harder to reach 10K on iQiyi. As you can see from the list, there aren't that many. The average number for a good drama is usually around 7.5K. Anything above 8K is considered popular.
As for the drama class levels, there's A, S, and S+, depending on the platform. It's usually internal info for investors to know, but sometimes it's revealed to the public for marketing reasons. This shows how much is allotted to it like production budget, promotions budget, etc. If I remember correctly, Love Between Fairy and Devil was S level, but I think iQiyi only has A and then S. Not sure if they have anything lower than A, but some of their cheesy rom-com with new actors look like they could be a B, lol. Youku and Tencent have A, S, and S+. Tencent is the one that produces the most S+ dramas, I think. You can usually tell by who the lead actors are. It's only top actors who are leading these.
Cut XD at YL's bedside scene when she was poisoned in ep 19:
https://youtu.be/WHmZFmOwmP8
Cut kiss from the wedding scene in ep 20:
https://youtu.be/8oJhOGgFCuE
"In fact, it was not easy for this drama to be aired smoothly. The trial was full of twists and turns. First, it was stuck in November because of the epidemic. After it was released, it was rejected twice because of the content and theme. In fact, it was mid-December. At that time, our project team was fully prepared for the possible postponement. It is estimated that the luck of the leading actors and our friends is very good, and the certificate was issued on 12/20. Last year, the review was particularly strict, especially for the key projects. It is ridiculous that an A-level project was changed to a key project because of the traffic(meaning Dylan's popularity due to LBFAD). The 16th (not sure what the person meant by this) is a project that my friend contacted, and it was returned and deleted after finalized. I don't know what those in charge were thinking. In fact, there is no second trial for Forbidden Love. Firstly, I am afraid that there will be changes in ancient drama's policy this year. I can say that Forbidden Love's intimate scenes are already many this year because there is no second trial."
So imo, as @mizukilla pointed out previously, it's not just because there are intimate scenes, but it's intimate scenes between a consort and eunuch(fake or otherwise) in a historical setting. As the poster mentioned, this drama entered the spotlight due to Dylan so it was considered a key project instead of a lower level drama like Uncanny Destiny, which has relatively unknown actors. However, I also think the editor went a little overboard with their cutting. Maybe they cut the post wedding kiss because there was too much lips movement and not just simple lips pressing lol.
https://youtu.be/w3qSA-W8gqg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3qSA-W8gqg
Throw all your expectations away from here on and forget about any teasers you may have seen.
The only highlight from these two eps for me was when XD was telling YL about how his brother ended up being a eunuch. WHD can emote really well in subtle emotional scene. Nothing needs to be exaggerated for the viewer to feel what he's feeling.
1. The hero and heroine on iQIYI Scream Night! ! !
2. Extra tidbits/cut scenes are packaged into extra episodes and released! ! !
3. The male and female protagonists have a livestream or sweep the building together(have promotions together)! ! !
4. The male and female protagonists do a magazine photoshoot together! ! !
5. The male and female protagonists record a variety show to promote the drama! ! !
6. Release the cut portions of Tianfang Water Pavilion! ! !
As for the drama class levels, there's A, S, and S+, depending on the platform. It's usually internal info for investors to know, but sometimes it's revealed to the public for marketing reasons. This shows how much is allotted to it like production budget, promotions budget, etc. If I remember correctly, Love Between Fairy and Devil was S level, but I think iQiyi only has A and then S. Not sure if they have anything lower than A, but some of their cheesy rom-com with new actors look like they could be a B, lol. Youku and Tencent have A, S, and S+. Tencent is the one that produces the most S+ dramas, I think. You can usually tell by who the lead actors are. It's only top actors who are leading these.