skizlock

I have watched both of those series.

And that criteria is only for Chinese because I drop them the most even after carefully scanning first 100 or so comments.

Because I am also going to watch Taiwanese, Korean, Thai, Filipino etc dramas, my criteria has to be strict.

No, I don't watch on streaming services. I use a private torrent tracker. No stream can match the experience delivered by a downloaded series. And the variety is not limited by the source as is with streamers.

I get new dramas almost every other day from multiple Asian countries. Check their rating, if it is above 8 with 1k+ users on MDL and good subs, I take it. Short series are not my cup of tea, I want longer experiences.

Next I will be watching Sweet Teeth.

Yes, you are correct. IMO the personalities of both leads had their quirks and ample amount of patience, more in the male lead, caused some out of the ordinary calm.
That's why its not worth rewatching on its own. But one must consider that we are outliers, the series is a package deal with the prequel. And was essentially made to cash in on the fanbase's desires, fan servicing series so to speak.

This is a great one time ride. An extreme tear jerker for me. It served to be a drastic change of pace. Most dramas would be considered fast paced in comparison. I am sure I won't be watching it again because that's just how the plot is.

I for one did not bother watching the tragic prequel series. Thankfully, I did not find anything that would compel me to watch it, only the knowledge of its existence was enough. So, I can confidently say that all commenters recommending otherwise have an innocent ulterior motive of trying to make you love the whole series as they do.

This is a romance, through and through. Coupled with generally silent leads, which exacerbate the situation even further. Expect episodes upon episodes of intense romance and tension. It was frankly my first Chinese drama which had so much romance. It does actually have its draggy moments but they don't last long so I cannot label it so.

Rating: 8.5

She was not miss casted. Just the writer didn't make her shine as she was supposed to. Her so called high skills were completely useless and even her subordinates were better than her on many occasions. She severely lacked situational awareness expected from a high calibre expert.

You don't understand, in her era, betrayal equals annihilation of the entire clan. It has already been discussed some times before E24 that it is an established norm.

Only in the modern era you would expect her to lie because there is remotely any urgency of such an atrocity happening.

But in her era, the first thing on her mind would be to confess and bank on their relationship for mercy. Because regardless of how much family you have, all will be getting the sword, next thing in the morning.

Ratings are personal preference. I have been into Japanese fiction and animation for some time in my teens to young adult years. Nowadays its just the occasional volunteer editing gig that I do for a manga fan translation group due to a commitment (mainly the manga: Satanophany).

I got my hands into too many jars, so I had to limit what I wanted to do, to what I could do, without hurting the things I need to do. Simply balance hobbies with my businesses. See my profile for more on that.

I do not have like minded friends so I watch stuff that passes my standards. I have an unorthodox closed source for Asian entertainment so the frequency is quite high. Every other day I am exposed to a new series. Just today I had two for selection. One K-Drama and one C-Drama both modern and both rejected haha.

For rating, I have a system rather to say.
9/9.5 are those that I try to keep in my backups. But there are some that are only good for one watch in there as well.
8.5 is the cut off, if there is good romance, I cut the series to size, otherwise bye bye.
8.0 has the only merit of having a good main or side couple. Rarely considered for cutting.
Below 8.0 are thoughtless ratings.

Well I do not really have a bottom line for rating. I also have this habit of modifying rating till my mind settles down from the experience.

I also prefer comments over reviews but I do read the reviews, they give a more structured overview of things. Comments tend to get biased quick and so I have to read sometimes pages of them to make a consensus/decision.

Yes, those two dramas are modern. Let's just say I am very cautious of costume dramas. Majority I have watched have let me down. I am also an avid Chinese/Korean fiction novel reader and English translation editor from time to time, so I am exposed to even more let downs, hundreds of them in fact.

For dramas, I don't really have a limitation on their origins, except Japanese. Don't know why but they never click with me, instead provoke some extreme emotions. hahaha

Yes, I comment on almost every drama I watch, that's why I see much more, haha. You could say I am kind of a daredevil, smearing the most famous actors left and right. What can I say, not everybody looks great in all their acts.

Take "Crush" that I saw before this, the FL was Wan Peng, supposedly a famous veteran actress, but I only somewhat liked her in the later part with long hair, otherwise IMO she didn't deserve the lead role.

"Falling Into Your Smile" had a cute/beautiful FL and well ML was the same from ALP, who is naturally handsome. I can like cute FLs too as long as they are not childish or overly stupid. Though I felt the series itself very lacking. So its in my queue to cut into one that has the scenes I liked, haha. One skill that I am happy I learned.

And yes you are right about most of the things about this drama and the long seasons. They are indeed a deterrent. I do binge watches so its tolerable.

Oh finally! I found someone who shares my perspective, usually people here get defensive whenever I share my opinion about them.

And well I am not saying I don't watch them, after all I did get here after ancient love poetry where the FL was supposed to be an authoritative god but was a cute hamster instead. I could never take her seriously.

Its just unsatisfying, I have very low standards for dropping series, usually I binge till the end. Only when a series makes me sleep or the writing suddenly makes a 180 do I drop them. Instead I am meticulous when picking up a series.

This one was not up to my standards but the strong romance made me give it a go. At the end, that was all there was to it. I didn't like the second season which didn't have the passion of the first season. Yes, there were happy moments at length but the passionate reactions were deliberately suppressed IMO.

Yes, the FL is truly beautiful. I don't find the vast majority of Chinese actresses beautiful and that exacerbates my other gripes with costume dramas.

But Zhang Yi made this show a real treat to watch.

The first episodes are really boring because the whole premise of the show is actually the romance. Till it gained momentum even I was feeling bored every time the leads were not together.

It is an awesome drama frankly. The romance is top notch and for once the couple is balanced. Both of them are outstanding. I am still watching I can't rate it fully but as of E17 its going 8.5 for me.

The only nuances are the odd mechanics of the whole immortal world which seem conveniently placed to further the plot rather than be believable or even functional. There is no explanation of what it does, how it does or whether there is even a need of it, considering the mortals also have warriors.

Like take the God of Justice, what does he do other than talk about her sister? Only the god of matchmaking has some menial work.

And then take the mechanic of teleportation or underground movement, why walk when you can zip past everything, makes all that movement meaningless. Makes you wonder whether everyone has a screw loose.

Then there is the laughable concept of deities, a deity which can't even suppress the people around him/her to the ground has no right to be called a deity. We hear that they can ravage whole cities, but normal mortals openly dare confront them without fear.

There is the concept of heavens punishing deities if they hurt normal mortals. They hurt people en-masse but nothing happens.

The major flaw of the drama is the complete ditz of a FL. She completely lacks tact and sense in situations. The episodes long breakup fiasco and its background was all made worse to an unbelievable degree by the FL. Sometimes she lacks a filter and sometimes she lacks the mouth...

For me, unfortunately, this is the second drama in a row, after ancient love poetry, where IMO, the ML character is leagues ahead of the FL (even with the added handicap and later obsession).

The romance is great but overall it is lacklustre.

It is such a roller coaster for me. But that is a positive for this drama. It arouses some sharp emotions but then it tells us about the reality of life in such profound words which hold so much meaning that I myself felt gaining understanding of life anew.

I understand why the drama doesn't have good ratings, its not about the thrill, the charm or the peril of the usual cliches we get subjected to in multitude of dramas. Not the scenarios where problems never end and everyone in there has a pronounced agenda.

Instead, it is about some really deep facts of life which though are very obvious, we rarely actually understand the intricacies or draw meaningful conclusions out of them unless a situation forces us to.

Overall, I would say this drama is more suited towards a mature, 30+ audience, any younger and many would feel bored aside the main couple's romance. For the first time in my life, I am thankful that this drama got made.

P.S. actually seeing the families of the couple so happy, for a second made me think how I have not seen such in any Korean drama at all? I guess Reply 1988 is a close one here but issue remains.

The flash backs are too awesome! Once, I actually felt sorry for the boy... hahaha

But really unfortunately the FL is stuck with a woman with a tragic past, who can't understand that her case is just her own. Human relations are always unique. She just hasn't had enough alone time to figure it out and get over her past.

Saw her first in the music video with San E, simply gorgeous!
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8avNw5EWBYs

Joy of Life
The Eternal Love
Ancient Love Poetry
The Untamed

Yes, my quip isn't the length but rather mostly placement of the scenes. The summary also spoils events that happen far into the series. It really jumbles up all that one expects from it.

That's why I do not want to edit this series to make it interesting for myself, as it will require too much time.

Legends as you correctly pointed out has a lot of filler and I cut it down just for the curiosity of knowing how long will it be afterwards. Nowadays I only keep the romance cut, some 1h 30m haha.