Sol1056

just started reading the novel, and while I'm not sure how the rest of the story will go, the opening chapters (chicken time) are hysterical!

I believe a number of the leading characters are immortals, but there aren't any gods present (uhh that I recall?). Many of those immortals spend time slumming it (for various reasons) in the 'mortal' world, and it's never really addressed how someone can be among mortals for 'five hundred years' and not be dealing with the twenty-fifth generation of humans around them, but the drama doesn't really get into that. (Most dramas don't and it drives me mad trying to figure out why no immortal ever goes to stay among mortals -- a year among mortals being equal to an hour among immortals? -- yet never discovers the mortals now have steam engines.)

I think she's also got an agent who either pushes bad roles on her (ie always playing the nitwit, like Yang Zi was for awhile) and/or pushes her towards productions with unhelpful directors. I don't want to say bad per se, but just directors that either can't or won't help a newer actor achieve their part. I've seen new actors just explode onto the screen when they've got a director who can help them get to where they need to be, for the role.

I've also seen actors I've previously thought were decent-to-good just implode in a role. Most common cause seems to be the director ignored them, didn't direct (left them to figure it out themselves), or was actually abrasive/critical/demeaning or was a misogynist or sexual harasser. It can be very, very hard to perform when between scenes you're being screamed at, and (esp for less-seasoned actors) it can show.

I've seen YCY do a solid job in some of her dramas, and I think the differentiator is either having an experienced co-lead who can give her constructive feedback as they rehearse, or a director who figured out the right way to describe/instruct that clicks for her so she can deliver. Newer actors (esp ones that've already taken some harsh hits) need that support. Unfortunately, when support isn't there, she ends up getting all the blame because she's the one in the front of the camera.

I'm just not convinced it's always her fault, but it can be traumatizing dealing with a director/boss who belittles you, demeans you, harasses you, or just dismisses you (you're so bad you're not even worth their attention?). If you're still new enough that you haven't developed a thick skin, it can torpedo you. Frankly, I think pairing LYN and YCY has the potential to either fail catastrophically (doubtful) or be a landmark work for both of them -- remember, they both have *significant* insecurities around their work, so having a co-lead who can empathize with and support you can be a powerful experience.

Yep, pretty sure BJT normally dubs himself (and he has that rare deep voice and knows how to use it, like Zhang Ruoyun). Sometimes you can find VAs listed if you search the drama on wiki.d-addicts, but not always. (A lot of the info comes from people able & willing to read the credits for the VAs, or who track the VA's own site for latest/newest roles. So it can be incomplete sometimes.)

There are some VAs whose voices are so incredibly close to the actor's actual voice that I've been fooled -- pretty sure some of Bai Yu's first roles had VAs but it was really hard to tell, bc the VA copied her vocal quirks so well. Same for Guan Hong.

Where it really gets crazy is when a drama starts and you're like, DUB, I know that voice, where do I know it from, and that drives me crazy. Now I can recognize 5-6 male VAs and about 3-4 female VAs before they even finish their first line. It's like name that tune, except it's name that VA in three words or less!

Believe me, I'd heard some actors' real voices and would love if they do their own dubbing, b/c their voices are unique and interesting instead of the same five men & women whose voices pop up in EVERYTHING. I'm a lot less sick of the actors than I am the voice actors!

However, some actors are known for dubbing their own voices, like Hu Ge, Luo Lunxi, Esther Yu, Song Yi, Zhao Lusi, Zhang Ruoyun, Wang Kai, Guo Qilin, Liu Duan Duan, Seven Tan, Chen Feiyu, Song Zu'er, Zhu Yilong, Yang Zi, Deng Lun, Gao Shuguang.

Excepting some notable exceptions (ie Hu Ge, Luo Lunxi, Seven Tan, Bai Jingting) a lot of actors' early works are dubbed. They had a strong accent or verbal quirk, didn't enunciate, had a flat voice, or just didn't know how to fully exploit their voice as part of their actor-toolbox. Others (ie Zhang Linghe, Bai Lu, Zeng Shuxi, Cheng Yi) have moved to do their own dubbing as they've gotten more exposure and training, and studios want the person's actual unique voice.

Plus there's the dubbing itself, which is nowhere as easy as you'd think. Maybe those whose real voice you never hear in period dramas (ie Xu Kai, Dilraba, Yang Mi, Mark Chao) aren't inclined to master the VA skills or just don't have the time to come back during post-production for voice work.

That said, you usually will hear their real voices in a modern drama, where things like accents and inflection quirks can be worked into the story, and background interruptions are easier to work around. I think of the hundreds of dramas I've seen over the past decade, most of the time someone gets dubbed in a modern drama is because their accent is so strong & they suck at enunciating (looking at you, Vic Zhou).

lol I think Lenovo ThinkPad must've had a product placement agreement (of some sort) b/c when he started talking about Windows I nearly spit out my drink I was laughing so hard. They should've had an entire class of walking everyone through setting up their environment with a timeskip to eight hours later and everyone sobbing. The only thing less pleasant than Windows for setting up environments has to be OS/2 Warp, and there's good reason we've all collectively forgotten that momentary nightmare.

(altho if they'd talked about virtual machines or dual boot into Linux/Unix, I would've been fine, but I suppose that would've defeated the point of product placement to basically say, "hey, great little laptops so long as you're not running windoze.")

While objectively I think you're right that someone shouldn't have to apologize for every little thing, I do think there's a grace in apologizing to people who spent time worrying about you, even those at outer circle of your life like fans.

But especially so if you refuse to pay what you owe.

DL's the only one who's still trying to weasel out of paying what he owes in back taxes + fines. The only way to use him as comparison is if you know SZE is refusing to pay a single penny.

In the novel, he acts like a typical cold-hearted ML (at least to the FL, though he dotes on the other women in his family), but the novel also gives him a really good reason, so he's operating from a won't-be-fooled-again attitude along with massive grief and hatred. You do see his kindness elsewhere in the novel, just not towards her.

As for the personality facelift, I kind of hope not, since it's his lingering animosity that fuels a lot of the conflicts, in his struggle against his growing care/love for her -- and there are other ways to show "attraction to" and "care for" other than sex. But if they remove that love-hate struggle for him, they'll have gutted the entire story & it'll just be another "arranged marriage of strangers-to-lovers."

The director did Luoyang, which was well-done, but he was probably helped by having a well-written script. Unfortunately the screenwriter here has me side-eyeing the story, so I'm hoping there's an as-yet uncredited co-writer who smoothed out the first screenwriter's flaws.

Saying they got paid is like telling someone they shouldn't cry over being laid off, they made plenty of money a year ago. At least that doesn't also torpedo your career like a hint of tax issues do in PRC, when sponsors promptly drop them at the first sign of trouble (who needs proof, rumor is sufficient!). The impression I get is that tv/movie work is just like acting in Hollywood: feast or famine. You get a lot at once and nothing until you pick up more work, a few months or a whole year from now. That makes sponsorships -- a consistent and reliable bills-paying income -- what can get you through the lean times.

I was trying to figure out who the ML even is. I mean, I'd assume LYN but the description makes it sound like she escapes his schemes, runs away, and never sees him again. Now that's a unique ML role!

I just want to see if they leave in the part where she kicks him in the face...

Looking through the cast, and Liu Xiao Qing's bio says, "She was arrested for tax evasion in connection with her company, Beijing Xiaoqing Culture and Arts Company Ltd., in 2002, was fined 7.1 million yuan, and imprisoned for a year."

I don't think any of the more recent celebrity cases gone as far as actual jail time, yet LXQ's back and working again. Apparently a comeback is possible, if you're willing to put in the effort.

My guess? So far, CY has been pretty consistent in being disinclined to marry. She wavered for a moment with LTG but snapped back to her previous position quickly. Their marriage is a royal edict, but she still had her dad withhold some of the family's assets, and it's pretty clear if that edict disappeared she'd be dancing all the way home.

And then we have that not-insignificant interlude between YSS and MN -- a lot of emphasis from both that YSS has loved many women but mention marriage and he flees. Their talk sounded like two former lovers repeating old hurts, but the place and timing (with CY present, if passed out) feels like the story version of past history closing so a new future can open.

My money's on CY being the one who hot-foots it out of there. He's not really someone you have meet the parents, y'know. No title, no rank, from the enemy country, and spends his days either spying or flirting with women. It'd make sense for his comeuppance to be someone doing to him what he's done to someone else.

which is why I personally think the wisest course is to smuggle YY out of there, along with the cash, and just leave both two paranoid irrational kings to themselves. le sigh.

fingers crossed she stays that way! (non-stupid, I mean)

Good editing (though still rather fast) but I suspect it was also two episodes cut down to like ten minutes? to reduce episode count. Or why not see more editing like that, where we only see the plot-movement scenes and not the extra stuff (preparing, scheming, getting away, etc)?

At the three-quarter point of ep27, I had to pause and make sure I wasn't seeing a preview for an upcoming ep. It moved like a recap! Though I wonder if that's where they decided to make the most cuts to achieve the ep count. If so, other than slowing it down just a bit, it was a savvy place to skip the details and just give us the results and just two quick scenes that show us who put things in motion: Ruyi with the dance & poison, LTG with manipulating the 2nd prince.

But we know Ruyi is a assassin of many faces, like we know LTG can manipulate things to his advantage, just like we know NYZ and his crew are badasses, so we can guess NYZ either carved the badge or one of his guys stole it. So there really wasn't a reason to show the full heist, because that's what would be truly repetitive.

I'm not sure I'd say NYZ is totally the perfect man (although he's close) b/c from the bit about the fake gold piece, he's got a sly sense of humor but that's hiding how he's also deeply damaged by his own experiences.

As for LTG, NYZ has already beat him down (easily) several times. The only thing left to get LTG to grow up was to try was to talk some sense into him. That did require a "do you have any clue how much women do *not* like immature boys? let me count the ways." Started of course with the awesome dunked-in-cold-water part. I replayed that part at least twice.

If that scene didn't exist, or it ended after the dunking, and then the story cut to LTG cooperating, I wouldn't have bought it. Just like the princess clearly wasn't buying LTG's sudden "good mood" act, either. It's too radical a change, too quickly, from someone who's been hella inflexible/obsessed. That scene was the necessary catharsis to make LTG drop the tantrums and start using his head.