Klio

I'm on episode 46 and I wouldn't say it's that angsty, but Cheng Xu really is such a miserable character and seeing all the unfairness he has to go through despite the power he holds is really hard. I love how it's realistic tho. There are no rainbows in any of their lives. They have the power, titles and wealth, but none of them are happy and they all had to make sacrifices for the greater good. Just, the amount of sacrifices he has made combined with the horrible treatment of his own family/people he loves completely outweighs the positive things in his life. I don't know how his ending will be, whether it'll be unfair and miserable or they'll make it somewhat more satisfying, but I do hope he won't be the only character who gets the short end of the stick. I hope everyone else gets to suffer in the end too.

Is the situation with movies same as with dramas in China? Do they drop stuff unannounced or will we get some news and promo material before the official release?

Chu You Wen and Ma Zhai Xing & Ji Chong and Bao Na (implied).

With every fake underwater scene I see in c-dramas I come to appreciate what they did here more.

You're welcome! I hope so too! If you want to see more about the rest of the story you can read Save Me webtoon. It's basically a continuation of this (there are some slight changes but the core is the same).

Cein died, he committed suicide (the fire). I'm not sure what Jaeha did there, whether he jumped to commit suicide or not (in the original story he also died tho. He jumped from the building). Jooan was arrested in the original story after he killed his father. Haru is still hospitalized. Hwan, however, time travelled and the scene with all of them on the beach is the past he's reliving again. He'll try to save all of them and in the process of doing that he'll get stuck in a time loop. In the end he'll succeed, it'll just take many failed attempts.

I finally got around to finishing The Promise of Chang'an and I need something new ASAP. When will they release Hero Legends 🥲

That's common in wuxia/xianxia (chinese genre of fantasy) c-dramas, you'll get used to it.

This was so good! The 2nd season would be nice, but this ending works as well. I'm happy they left it vague enough for me to stay comfortably delusional. The Gong family and their inner relationships really carried this drama for me. Shangjue and Yuanzhi & Ziyu and Zishang were pure gold and I love how they all bonded in the end. It was so satisfying after everything that happened.
Also, I love how there were no annoying characters.

10/10

I wanted to watch it for Zhang Ling He too, but the rating is scaring me off 😂

The production of this drama is INSANE. It must've cost a fortune because the quality can be seen in everything, from costumes and props to amazing fighting scenes. I usually have an issue with fighting scenes in c-dramas because they just look so fake in many cases, but not here. I keep replaying all of them 😂

Oh, I have both The Smile Has Left Your Eyes and A Journey to Love in my PTW list 😂. I still want to watch AJTL, but since I'm watching dramas with someone who doesn't like tragedies it'll have to wait.

I've heard of Goodbye My Princess but I never thought about watching it tbh. None of my favourite actors are in it and I usually pick dramas based on actors 😆. I read some comments now that you mentioned it and it doesn't sound bad 👀

I watched it on dramacool. The official platform is xclusive but it's too expensive for a lot of people

Just to add about their relationship. It's pretty much filled with misunderstandings, ML knows he loves her but he repeatedly and intentionally tries to hurt her in order to make her hate him (he does have a reason for that). In between all the misunderstandings they have some very sweet moments together, and in the end (before death) they finally 'surrender' to their feelings.

So yeah, while the relationship still may be triggering, ML is actually aware of what FL means to him, but he intentionally tries to scare her away "for her own good". I remember a lot of people back then though it was too dark and rated it low, but I thought it was a quite interesting approach not seen too often 😂

Yes, they both die in the end.


SPOILERY EXPLANATION




ML was sick and didn't have much time left, and then FL took the same medicine he had as a kid and poisoned herself (the medicine was supposed to temporarily strengthen her body so she could fight in the battle, but the side effects were fatal) but eventually died not from medicine's side effects but in the battle. In the end it's said that once ML lost his partner, he followed after her (because that's how it works among the wolves when they lose their partners).

I hope I remember it correctly, but I'm pretty sure he died as well in the end (even if it was not explicitly shown) because even before her death it was said that he won't live long.

It's open, can be interpreted either way.

SPOILER EXPLANATION








Shi Ying dies in order to defeat the villain, but after 1 year time skip, the petal he turned into after death takes his human form and he and Zhu Yan meet again. It ends after that so some people take it as him coming back, while others are more doubtful.

Ah yeah, the ending. I honestly didn't experience it as something sad back then because they both died and left this world together & it was so fitting. I get sad only when one character gets left behind, but that's probably a me thing 😅

Maybe The Wolf? That's the only one I don't see in your watchlist that comes to mind 😅

We don't know about the 2nd season, there are no official news. I personally doubt there will be one, but the entire first season looks like it was filmed with 2nd season in mind.

The original story is also kinda fragmented. It's different bits and pieces (from music videos, short films, books, webtoon) put together by fans over many years and this drama adaptation filled in some blanks/created necessary context. Save Me webtoon can be seen as a continuation of the drama, and books are continuation of the webtoon (In a way - from what I remember the book parts were chronologically mixed)

But yeah, I agree that understanding the ending would be hard without knowing the time travelling context of the story. I really wish they would make the 2nd season and expand on that part of the story.

I honestly expected ML to be darker (because of comments). He wasn't even that morally grey, just very smart, cunning and determined. I did like him tho! It's nice to see a ML who is not a pushover.

All in all, it was good. The ending was satisfying so I'll give it 9/10.