Sol1056

ugh, names keep changing -- is "cheng" another name for prince su?

please edit this to mark it as a spoiler. there's no need to ruin it for people who aren't caught up with you.

In ep49/S2ep9, TSJ asks if CX was behind it, but I missed the reference -- did TSJ mean the arranging of those three guys who just happened to be next to them in the restaurant? Because it sounded to me like TSJ was saying CX was behind all the rumors in the first place. Anyone know which it is?

lololol @ ep 27: the "I am totally hidden completely behind this tree that's only 6" wide!" maneuver. truly, the stealthist master of stealth that ever stealthed.

But best part is, notice how she's not contradicting him, but seems actually kind of amused? she could easily undercut PWX by giving Su a pained look, or appearing reluctant, but instead she needs no prodding, she turns just as quickly to leave. Ahaha eat that, Su.

lolol no the 2nd part was just a bad joke, don't worry about that. and thank you for the translation! whatever he said was never brought up again, so I was left baffled as to how he'd proven what he knew. thank you!!

All good points, but I think it needs to be weighed against the difficulty of a) translating a rather strongly-interior novel with the very exterior-bias of film, and b) wanting to keep the audiences intrigued and questioning their assumption of foregone (that is, happy) conclusion for the top-billed two leads.

Like the scene w/the street vendor. Yes, in the book, he thinks up a lot of his shenanigans himself, but it'd get really boring watching someone play go while narrating their thoughts (or even more awkwardly, saying them out loud). Coming up with a background character to bestow "advice" or an "idea" gets us to the character-decides-on-plan without twisting visual media into knots trying to relay a character's interiority.

As for the second, the more the show brings Su to the forefront, the more it raises the question of whether drama = novel. It introduces a tension usually removed by "knowing the ending". So while I agree it's annoying because I don't actually find Su an interesting character (or even a very good actor, tbh), I can see why they chose this route.

If the previews were created before the show got its license, then it'd make sense the previews don't reflect the final version. Personally I consider that annoying (to show us deleted parts), but it might be more efficient to do previews during first round of editing, rather than have someone do those after all the various rounds of licensing/reviewing/approving are finally done.

(Plus previews are often intentionally misleading, just to spike audience interest/concern. They'll include shots from future episodes, or carefully cut next-episode scenes so you get a totally wrong impression, frex 'she really did push him off the roof!' or 'he turned into a complete jerk!' and you watch and realize neither actually happens.)

In ep22, around the 12-minute mark, a character tells 3rd uncle, "the ______ used by ______ for ______" and (at least in the version I'm watching) the subtitles stop. He finishes his sentence, but it's not translated. It's like a character saying "the murderer is..." and then promptly dying. Does anyone know what the rest of the sentence was?

Well, I stand totally corrected, so disregard all of that. The one part I do stand by is that I would've expected Su to be more focused on preventing his family's terrible end, instead of wasting time on something he'd still get (theoretically), if he were patient.

This has pretty much always been true of groups (ie families) with power. It's just that in some countries (like China) the 2nd/3rd/etc female companion was legitimized as a 'concubine.' The rest of the countries (ie Europe) there was technically one wife, but no limits on mistresses.

Plus, in the wife/mistresses system, the wife had zero power, since mistresses were usually kept at a separate residence, quote-unquote 'out of sight' of the legal wife. (And usually children of mistresses were 'bastards' who didn't even get publicly recognized as the king's children.) Compare to the alternate system (ie China, Korea) where queens had management of and power over the concubines, since they all lived in the inner palace -- and where a concubine's child was recognized as the king's, and could be promoted to positions of some power.

uhh disregard, I just figured it out!

I really need a category here that's for "dramas that may never air but I don't want to forget about them just in case" because my Plan To Watch list is getting really crowded with all these hopeful selections that may not see the light, uh, within the next year. Le sigh.

FYH is a decent drama, and has its emotional beats (it's not all silliness). But you can look away and miss a few lines in FYH and still be able to track the story. In TPR, I miss even a word and I have to back up and watch again. FYH just isn't as information-loaded as TPR.

The characterizations make so much sense to me. They've had 17 years of misunderstanding, hurt, and resentment. Neither of them will be able to move forward until they're able to fully unpack the walls between them. PWX confessing about how he *used* to feel is a big step in that direction, and it's also necessary for LR to process that before she could even consider how he feels now, or even how she feels.

Almost twenty years of estrangement is really difficult chasm to cross. Reconciliation's not an overnight thing, and I have huge respect for a storyline that knows not to rush the process.

Uhhhh... in ep23, when the Madam is talking to the official, did it look to anyone else like her cleavage was all the way to her belly button? I think her dress is supposed to be a very soft blush color, except I can't actually see it because it blends with her skin so well. It's so the opposite of what I expect to see (especially in a c-drama) that it's proving completely distracting.

By episode 15, look like the Duke's in my favorite kind of ML mode (with Gu Ting Ye being one of the most well-known examples) -- he's not moving a finger. He's just sitting back and totally enjoying watching his love interest utterly obliterate whomever is getting on her nerves. When a FL's assured (and legit) competence makes the ML fall even harder, now that's what I call romantic.

In that case, might as well say LLTG re-used the trope straight out of TSATB, with Wallace Chung. A gag as old as time.

Every time there's a scene with the grandmother, I keep thinking: boy, if only Minglan's grandmother were here. Heads would ROLL. None of this polite smiling and hoping heads fall off on their own!

It feels like "block your way by stepping in the direction you step, back and forth several times" is a much-loved dance move in the show. Starting to feel like a running gag...