sloweagle

C-drama is always draggy, that's why China censorship starts to put a soft limit 40 episodes on every show now. It was very common for c-drama to last 50, 60+ episodes. The way I handle it is to use 2x or 3x speed available in the app. If the episode is really interesting, I reset it back to 1x. And if the drama is very good, I rewatched the entire drama at 1x speed again. And usually then I found that it wasn't draggy as the second ru. I get to appreciate a lot of small details that wasn't important in showing the plot, but was very interesting in character development or some other thing that I don't care about in the first run.

3.63 billion on WeTV platform. It doesn't count other platform such as YouTube or satellite TV.

Eternal Love 2017 is an obvious recommendation. That's arguably the best not just from Yang Mi, but also the best in this genre, it amassed worldwide 100+ billion view count, nothing else come close to it. I personally contributed to that count a lot too by rewatching it many times, haha. Sword of Legends 2014 had both WC and YM, but personally I don't enjoy that one, but I do know a lot love that too. Legend of Fuyao 2018 is a bit of draggy, but if you enjoy watching Yang Mi, it is at least good eye candy anyway, I enjoyed it and rewatched it.

If you can read Chinese. There is a photoshopped ending with new Chinese subtitles talking about younger prince. :)
https://m.weibo.cn/status/4711419469104761

The Chinese basically are arguing that in Chinese norm one say "his eldest son" only when there is possibility of younger son, otherwise it should say "his son". It then means. 1: there is already a younger son; or 2: Emperor is still alive so another younger son is possible in the future, 3: One of his wives is pregnant before he died. Since 2 is not possible, either 1 or 3 indicates HS had a son or is pregnant.

I have seen people talking about that "eldest son" and mermaid surprised scene to indicate a younger prince in Chinese weibo. I even saw a photoshopped ending with new Chinese subtitle talking about a younger prince named WeiRuo. I think Yun Ruo was a Chinese word when put together meaning promise.

That might be opposite of lost in translation. The Chinese subtitle doesn't imply that, it was simply saying "we would have had a lot of kids and raised them together". It doesn't say more than one child.

They have more real kisses in dream than in real. Also they have a lot of kisses when one of them is unconscious. The real kiss between them not in dream didn't come until really late in the drama.

Lol yeah. Back then I never watched any drama with Yang Mi as lead. Now even any of her drama is slow initially, I won't drop it as she has earned her reputation with me for me to continue a lot longer.

I think the novel is only in Chinese. No translation yet. The novel is not loved that much because it is so much darker.

Yeah. I think they already claim this show was the only and first one to cross 100b mark, you don't even add Netflix, Amazon or Viki. Just add the YouTube total which is visible, it would have crossed the mark.

This drama will get a lot of rewatches since NPE just ended. Audiences need this drama to get over the post drama depression. Haha

I almost dropped it in the first few episodes too. I was asking my wife "why are you recommending such a boring show to me?" And she responds "just continue if you believe me", so what else can I do? Lol

But then it doesn't disappoint. It is absolutely THE top c-drama for me, not one of them. I don't know how many times I have rewatched some of the episodes. Whenever I need some sweet moment to cheer me up, I come to around episode 30 of this drama, and whenever I need some urge to be emotional, I go to watch the sad scenes in episode 57 or so. Haha

Get to see this review after seeing your review on NPE. Can't agree more. TMOPB is the defining c-drama that made you search for comparable and never find one. I didn't like this genre much, and this drama changed it but to my dismay, I haven't still found anything that is close to this level.

In my view, this drama not only provide enjoyment for audiences, it also has the magic that move you in real life to have better chemistry with your own lover/spouse. Haha.

I honestly think NPE is between TMOPB (8.9) and Fuyao (8.4). Hopefully NPE rating will end between 8.4 and 8.9 as more watched it and rated it. Lol

As I mentioned, I only thought hxm dragged the movie down. Both Tang and Yang did a good job in my view. But Zhong acted better than Huang which made me like like movie version less. Perhaps it is because I already read novel before so I had some preset image in my head, and Huang just doesn't match it. Lol

It is not tragic ending, but not traditional sweet happy ending. It is 100% sweet happy ending if you choose to drop it 2 episodes before the official end. But personally I like the official ending. I think this drama created a precedent that they can do official alternative ending. That's brilliant.

In short, it is a happy ending but can get you to cry as if it is a sad ending. You could have the best of the two world. Meanwhile, you also have the choice to stop watching 2 episodes before end, that would be a 100% sweet happy ending.

I started re-watching the series, and I found I ended up like the pace more than the first run. Knowing later development, I really started to appreciate more both lead's acting on how they were developing the relationship. I still think the archery scenes in Episode 6 was the spark moment for FJM to open up, before then he acts more like care than love.

I saw some fanfic in sina weibo getting traction and up to a few chapters now. But it is in Chinese.