realdealari

Yes I agree and thats how I see the difference btwn them as Yutu is supposed to be in his 30s while Xiao Nai is still a college student.

It is not dubbed, Dilraba and Yang Yang are using their own voices.

oh so this is confirmation? wow I did not expect it to be so fast, I mean I'm excited to see Reba more and more since she will have two dramas airing back to back but is that good or risky? I could be reading too much into it tho...

Hii, that sounds great do you have a link to an eng version please or is it all in chinese?

Omg yesss I love how the book desribes Ren Anle/ Di Zi Yuan, her entire personality seems new to me compared to other roles Reba has portrayed so that makes me even more excited. I really hope they at least stick to the introductions and the first meeting btwn Ren Anle and Han Ye (One of my fave moments), and yes I'm a sucker for women empowerment which definitely relates to the other female cast as you mentioned also with Wen Shuo, I looked at photos of the actor who will play him and he already looks exactly how I envisioned Wen Shuo to look. I think they did a great job at casting, all the characters are amazing to me, I see why the novel was so popular.

Thank you, Im saying this now as I have literally just finished the novel with google translation hahaha I'm crazy because I was still able to understand even tho its not accurate. Really loved the novels, don't know how much the script will copy but overall I am excited to see how they portray the characters because I think how they are described in the book really stands out to me.

Disclaimer: no hate to any of the cast or their fans, this statement just represents those who committed the acts not the fandom as a whole.

Also want to state that to put an entire conclusion that the drama was a flop just because of views not being up to your standards and no kissing scenes is just ridiculous. First of all the actual comic the drama is based on has barely any romantic tones to the story so how can we expect to have multiple kissing scenes when that's not the priority of what the drama is trying to portray. Is the no kissing clause by wu lei actually proven? because I read that it was the director or producers decision (I forgot), he later claimed that he had no clue that people would be so upset about it. And don't even get me started on douban, the user culture of douban leans towards antis. Weibo is social media for fans and douban is social media for antis. that’s just the nature of the communities that exist on the two apps. and the douban algorithm won’t count your ratings and reviews unless you’re an active douban user, so fans can’t just create an account and write reviews. so, no, fans and antis are not represented in equal numbers on douban. If you actually try to, like, read a few douban reviews… it becomes apparent pretty quickly lol
So for these reasons and to conclude my comments haha THE LONG BALLAD IS NOT A FLOP, it may have done better internationally but it still is very successful in China.

A lot of the noise about TLB being unsuccessful was because there were tons of paid marketing accounts and antis and HaoYan shippers spamming their hot takes on how bad the drama is (and one of the most common criticism I saw was that the female lead looks too masculine so….anyone who knows the basic plot of TLB can join me in laughing about that). HaoYan fans not only boycotted the drama, they also told other people not to support the drama and to only watch the cut on bilibili. Liu Yuning had to come out and ask people to support the drama officially but they literally ignored him.

So TLB was definitely a success, the data is right there. China’s most reliable media thinktank also ranked TLB the #1 drama in online influence for the first half of 2021. It succeeded in spite of this whole mess that happened. But it was prevented from being a much bigger success.

For comparison, YAMG is currently airing without any of this mess, and it’s clearly going to be a more successful drama than TLB despite having the same female lead and an overall cast of equal or lesser popularity than TLB. It’s not even going to be close, YAMG’s numbers are clearly going to surpass TLB. And does YAMG have a wider appeal? Idk, the first half of the drama has focused on in-game features of a video game that most of the target audience doesn’t play and probably doesn’t really understand. But when people search up YAMG on weibo they see “the leads have amazing chemistry” and not “this drama sucks, go watch the HaoYan cut on bilibili”, and it makes a significant difference. (KEEP IN MIND THIS POST WAS CREATED AFTER TLB AIRED AND DURING THE BEG OF YAMG AIRING)

I will paste some info below by someone who is chinese and has intel on c-ent. (I would give credit but this person chooses to stay lowkey).

QUESTION:
Did The Long Ballad do well in China after everything Tencent did? I heard conflicting stuff about this on Twitter

ANSWER:
English c-ent accounts on Twitter are okay for getting updates as long as you don’t take their word as fact. For people who are actually Chinese, it’s really obvious that they’re getting information from paid marketing accounts because they don’t really understand how c-ent works.

If your only source is weibo then maybe you’d think that The Long Ballad didn’t do well. The weibo trends were a mess, and Tencent’s official marketing account kept ghosting or arguing with fans, and the paid marketing accounts kept writing negative clickbait. But paid marketing accounts are paid. Weibo trends are also paid.

And the majority of Chinese people don’t use weibo. There’s no actual equivalent of Twitter or Instagram in China. So anecdotal evidence from your own social circles is often a better gauge. Everyone’s social circle is different, but I can tell you from my own experience that TLB was popular among university and graduate students, and people in their 20s and 30s. It came up in conversations and group chats, including with people who don’t usually watch dramas.

The most neutral gauge is probably the ratings. TLB was ranked #1 in online streaming ratings throughout its broadcast. It’s one of the most viewed dramas of 2021. And you should additionally consider that TLB was the first drama to air after Tencent changed the way it counts views so that fewer views will be counted. At one point, the views kept hitting 3 billion but kept moving back to 2.9 billion because they kept removing views. So the ratings are a little complicated but they still turned out strong.

Also, keep in mind that 2 months after the end of the TLB broadcast, GeSun remains the #1 BG ship in China. How could that be possible with a drama that didn’t do well? -continues in reply of this post

I agree with this comment, Reba has worked hard for years and is proud of the work she puts out. She seems like someone who genuinely enjoys her job, I personally don't see her ever giving it up (it must of been a hard journey to get where she is) but then being a parent could change all of that. Anyways Reba has expressed that she will have a family once she reaches her 30s quite confidently so I think shes prob already planned to balance both for as long as she can. If she does step away from entertainment I will still support her.

Yes I also saw that rumour, which is funny because people complained that S5 she was in was boring compared to the other seasons (based on YT comments). I only watched her season and it was still enjoyable but I am just biased as Im a fan of hers. Anyways I don't know how it did in terms of ratings or whatever you measure for chinese variety shows but if the rumour is true then obviously Reba is worth it. I guess it depends on her projects next year and if she has time.

Anyone know where I can read the novel with eng translation please? I already know one site but I already finished the 12 chapters available only.

I absolutely agree with everything you mentioned, ZLS seems to be hyped esp overseas so I get why she gets many good roles like she now has dramas with both of Rebas most recent leading men lol I don't see that as a pure coincidence, she's alo being pushed by powerful investors. I see so much potential in Bailu seems like shes rising up too with her success this year, also Seven Tan. With Reba, I prefer a different leading man for this one, as others said I also hope its eddie but we will have to wait. If she does accept ball lightning I will be a bit worried, sci fi is such a risky genre, it can either go really well or really bad, I have faith in Reba and her choices tho as I know she wants to branch out with her roles and I think she needs that.

I agree, the proof is in the pudding as she gets shipped with pretty much all her MLs so just proves she's great at creating natural chemistry. As individual acting goes I can vouch for this as I was a fan of Dilraba during 2017 of her drama pretty li hui zhen and then I had stop watching dramas for a long time. Coming back now I have binged watch mostly ALL her drama (didn't drop any, I went fully in haha) and I did it in order too (the OCD in me). She has grown sooo much since I last saw her in 2017, and her ability to try different roles has improved. Truly proud how hard she has worked on her craft, I will continue to look forward to all her next projects and for her to keep on growing.

Yes I think filming for LOA ends in a few days according to articles. I've been hearing good things about expectations for TBW due to the plot standing out compared to other costume drama plots, either way I'm excited for both and look forward to what Dilarabs next drama will be, if she will take on Ball lightning or not. Hopefully the drama lives up to expectations.

I mean I wouldn't put that all on the no kissing aspect, I have read that there was lack of promotion towards the series due to conflict also many antis paying towards negative marketing and clickbaits for TLB. There was also certain fans that were boycotting and spreading only cut scenes to watch so that they don't contribute to the drama views (wont get too deep into this) so I feel those really contributed towards the unfortunate side of TLB not blowing up like YAMG, also keep in mind YAMG didn't get nearly as much of a mess than TLB did. But it still IS successful, it charted first in streams during its run and it blew up internationally. Kissing isn't everything, it shouldn't take away the fact that the acting was amazing in TLB and the drama itself still did really well, one of the most streamed dramas of the first half of 2021.

ohh so the voice actor is the same, I personally don't mind it from the trailer so it doesn't concern me and I have faith it will go well. Also I have seen in a leak (randomly popped up on tumblr tsk) a quite romantic hug between them where he whispers in her ear, which is actually beyond what I was expecting with them so I am happy there's elements of affection there, gotta be grateful for what we get esp when he's married and I'm sure they know what they are comfortable with as actors.

Yeeess I saw this on twitter and I was so excited, reba definitely is improving and gets better and better with every drama.

If true then it would (almost) be similar to this year with TLB and YAMG, so excited for Reba hoping for another successful year.