Sol1056

What actually puts it over the top (in terms of the intensity of experiencing) is that YZ pulls absolutely zero punches when it comes to physical scenes.

I've seen plenty of other FLs push a little with their wrist, and then just shake their heads, as if that's all the defense they could put up. It all feels very much like playacting. A little screaming, some wiggling, not a hair out of place.

Just like YZ cries with her entire body, she fights with her entire body, too. It was pretty clear to me whomever was that scene's antagonist (the SML, the servant) had to work damn hard to hold up their end. There's no sense of this being play-acting. I mean, I can't name a YZ fight/hurt scene where she comes out as fresh as she went in. There's hairs out of place, garments torn, a subtle new tension in how she stands. Her willingness to be present so physically and emotionally is what makes her scenes so raw and so much harder to handle.

And it's also why I usually feel like other dramas don't go as hard when it comes to FL abuse, in comparison. On paper, they do (and worse). But in terms of actually doing the scenes, very few FLs go that hard. That makes a lot of their stories have less impact in terms of trauma.

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When FL tried to do demonic magic, and she got black veins. The turtle's explanation was eternals need eternal-specific stuff, and because she's part-stone, she needs to stick with eternal stuff... so that's the medicine she used. And then used on FY. No wonder it's messed him up thoroughly -- if demon magic screws with an eternal, then of course eternal medicine would screw with a demon.

Of course, the possibility is the story just wants him to have amnesia -- and need him to be powered-down for this arc's resolution -- and figured his injury would cause all this, la la la magic clause. But I'm hoping FL figures out -- or at least raises the idea -- his current state wasn't from being harmed but from being cured.

Oh, and about the illusion. Supposedly, the guy's resentment is about his fate, yet he unrolls the story mostly from a fox POV; after all, three-quarters of his audience are playing the role of foxes. I mean, if his resentment was logical, he'd be focused entirely on Kunlun. They alone bear the responsibility for the whole tragedy. That's why I feel the real resentment that needed resolving wasn't his own anger. It was the foxes'.

Kunlun covered-up what happened and forgot about it, but the foxes never did. If there's a loophole anywhere to defeat the Cloud guys, I'm hoping it comes from the fox direction, as they're integral to the whole reason there was a barrier in the first place. But I guess we'll see. If you've read the novel, don't spoil me with answers! Leave me with this faint hope the writing is that good and will continue to be.

Putting in reply b/c the specifics are spoilers, but if you're waffling on whether to watch, I can at least say (as of ep12) the screenwriter/director/author/etc is really paying attention to the details. Though it doesn't look like anything's been made explicit, things make sense if you give it a little thought...

Uh, thanks for the sentiment, but no. I don't need to see every second of suffering to recognize a character's growth.

Never fear, I skip judiciously!

thank you!!

I've reached about halfway through ep6, and I have to ask: at what point do things start turning around? I'm just not in the right headspace to get engaged with a story that has to strip the heroine of everything and everyone. Someone just tell me where to skip ahead to, please?

Watching just the first three episodes and all I could think was that Bai Lu has come such a long, long way in her path as an actress. She started out decent enough, but the last few series (and especially this one) it's clear she's leveled up.

It does several spoilers, which stripped out some of the emotional kick of some scenes, which I personally don't appreciate. (I prefer openings like LBFAD or TPR where the images seem pretty but mostly meaningless until the story got to the point relevant to that image, and you realized what the imagery had been hinting at.) I mean, if nothing else, it really is safest to just have opening credits that are pictures of each characters, some nice music, title page, roll story.

But this is honestly the first time in all the dramas I've watched that a) it almost tops 3 minutes!!, and b) it's basically a repurposed trailer??? That last part boggles me. Like, did they spend so much money on the trailer they figured they'd get their money's worth on the CGI by using it as the opening credits? Cannot process.

Considering the maid's "my lady" is translated as "my wife", I wouldn't be surprised if an accurate translation is actually local gossip -- as in, gossip => go-between or mediator => magistrate. We need a local translator in here to tell us what's really being said!

bad. very bad. it's mango tv, after all.

These are all questions based on ep1's implied exposition. There's Lanling, who are immortals, wear light colors, and are ostensibly the "good" guys. There's Bright Moon, who are demons, wear dark/saturated colors and are ostensibly the "bad" guys. And then there's Cold Spring, who wear dark colors, and apparently dislike both Lanling and Bright Moon. (And then there's generic monsters who go around hunting humans, I guess those are low-level demons?)

So what is Cold Spring -- demons, immortals, something else? I mean, other than jerks.

The more I watch, the more it strikes me it was truly unusual for XXN to be upfront about who actually 'wrote' the poem. I was fully expecting him to take credit, which would've been the cliche. Nice to see at least one story subvert it.

They're two very different shows. JoL tells you from the very start that a) FX doesn't even know why he's here -- vs XQA who's aware of his entry, and b) FX is somehow very important to a lot of people, none of whom trust each other -- vs XQA who was a nobody but has befriended/impressed a lot of people who now consider him important. FX swims with sharks from the beginning, and he makes a lot more enemies than friends, while XQA starts with the catfish and works his way up to the sharks, and makes a lot more friends than enemies.

Of course it's possible some folk might enjoy one more than the other, because they appeal to two different kinds of tastes. Political machinations and a hell of a lot of double meanings cloaked in FX's sharp observations and pointed humor -- or a well-meaning albeit a little goofy XQA who's so disarmingly honest he probably wouldn't know a double meaning if it walked up and punched him in the face. That's playing to two very different audiences, or at the least two very different moods to be in while you're watching.

For some reason, Yan Zidong reminds me so much of a young Eddie Peng.

Thing is, even the series that are definitely identified are also way changed from their source materials. You can put a lot of stuff in novels that'll never make it past the censors. Which makes me wonder if/when a chinese novelist will denounce the adaptation decay of their story and ask for their name to be taken off the project.

(which is to say, I have no idea. once you remove the rebirth/foreknowledge part, you're mostly left with an OP lead who's a step ahead of everyone all the time -- which is nowhere near as interesting -- to me, at least -- as a character with deep trauma who's allowed to work through and resolve that trauma thanks to a do-over.)

Do you realize nothing of what I said was against her, and in fact was complimentary? Or are you just looking for a reason to fuss where none exists?

And yes, I was hearing the song cold. So if the pauses were in the original, then that makes sense -- but it doesn't mean she wasn't also using it to catch her breath. Singing in the cold is hard, even without exposed skin. Per my previous comment, "It speaks to her abilities that she could pull it off despite that".

The soundboard's added just enough reverb to "thicken" her voice, which is actually pretty common for live performances. What makes me think it's live is the fact you *can* hear her breaths. Studio-recorded songs are done with a shield over the mic to reduce those breathing sounds.

From what I know from opera singers (my parents' friends) is when you're trained for live performance (as in, that's you on the stage and your voice, no production help) you learn to know where and when to place those breaths so they're less obtrusive. Her breaths seem to be a lot closer together than I'd expect, which makes me think the cold weather / exposed skin / a capella are taking a toll on her. So she's pushing harder to hide any vocal trembling/wavering, and that's got her shorter of breath than usual.

(I can't tell what's going on during the long pauses, but I wouldn't be surprised if she took advantage of the pause to catch her breath. Also, whomever put her in such non-warm flimsy -- and exposed! -- clothing should be shot. It speaks to her abilities that she could pull it off despite that, but I don't think a singer should have to.)

Disregard, I stand corrected.