mione

they’re pretty much “together” throughout the whole drama but there are lots of ups and downs before they reach their true happy ending.

totally an understandable and relatable feeling about having a handful of characters killed. but trust me, this drama is already treating us nice because lots of other chinese ancient dramas won't hahahha c':

to answer your question about sui he: yes, it does make sense for her to 'frame' xu feng because she wants jin mi to believe that it was xu feng who killed her parents (besides, the only people who knew how to use 'glass fire' were only xu feng and his mother. his mother was locked up so it wouldn't make sense for her to be the one to kill jin mi's parents). sui he doesn't know about the pill inside jin mi's body (therefore is unaware that at this point of the story jin mi hasn't willingly reciprocate xu feng's feelings) and sui he is also blindly in love and just wanted xu feng for herself; she was simply jealous of jin mi winning the attention of xu feng [SPOILER ALERT] making it as though it was xu feng who was the one who killed jin mi's parents then triggered jin mi to kill xu feng in the later episodes (sui he then took credit for 'reviving' him even though it was jin mi who did). but dw, things will get resolved and sui he gets her punishments...a terrible one imo.

we must also note that while jin mi was in the mortal realm, her pill was damaged which was why she felt love towards xu feng at that time. after when she had returned back to the heavenly realm, it was the night deity who repaired the pill to its original form therefore this played an impact in the way jin mi behaves before deciding to kill xu feng (the night deity obviously couldn't control himself craving for power and his jealousy was growing, especially after secretly witnessing the night xu feng and jin mi 'mutually cultivating'. hell, he even became delusional and claimed that it was him who mutually cultivated with jinmi, not xu feng. [SPOILER ALERT] it was only after when jin mi has successfully killed xu feng that she choked out the pill and realised that she was wrong.

tbh, i personally think the drama was well made because for those who have read the novel, the concept of the story and its characters are actually more complicated than what's being depicted in the drama, especially jin mi because of the pill and her naiveness. even xu feng was quite a complicated character. the drama actually toned down a lot of scenes from the novel, but still staying faithful to the original storyline with only minor tweaks. if you let me take the vote, i prefer the novel over the drama anytime ;p

p.s. if you're going to continue the drama, which i reallllllly hope you can try to <3 there's a surprise for you in the last ep if you were sad that her parents died :D

hmmmm, i havent watched whirlwind girl...only because my sister told me that yang yang's character dies, sooooooo ⏤i just lost interest lmao c':

omg youre fast! xD trust me, you wont be disappointed with the lost tomb; he was such an eye candy! i actually fell in love with him from the lost tomb before love 020 came out! :D

youre welcome :) if that’s the case, after you finish love 020, i highly recommend starting boss & me (and perhaps check out the novel (last few chapters or epilogues) because the characters have connections (both female leads become friends, both male leads become rivalries from playing rpg and their children are super cute!).

afterwards, it might be worthwhile to try my sunshine (drama version) because it was written by the same author. and although it wasnt mentioned in the drama, in the novel, the male lead from my sunshine was the female lead’s (from boss & me) senior. my sunshine also has a more angsty plot, but it’s still very smooth sailing for the main leads with a happy ending.

if you are interested in movies, might be nice to try love 020 the movie version too (staring angelababy and jing boran). it depends on personal preferences; i personally like the female lead’s character portrayal from the movie, but prefer the male lead and his character portrayal from the drama xD the cinematography is stunning in the movie though (because more budget) so it moght be worthwhile to watch :)

if you want to see yang yang onscreen with a totally diff character, i would say try the lost tomb. he wasnt the male lead, but he’s character was important and he was on the journey with the male lead while they discovered “the tomb”.

as for variety shows, you can perhaps check out his appearances on happy camp (i think it might be subbed on yt), or you could check out divas hit the road (season2), which is a travelling reality tv show. he was on that show before filming for love 020 and zheng shuang (wei wei) was on the show as well. you will be shook of his real personality lmao

i think you might legend of yunxi because there are more young casts compared to ten miles of peach blossoms :) you probably won't like story of yanxi palace (i personally loved it) because it's harem and i wouldn't say the casts are "young" although some are defs "fresh" hahaha

i also agree with ninan that you might like the eternal love (season 1+2). it's a lighthearted drama and is pretty short with great chemistry between the young leads :D if you're into modern dramas too, you might like to try love 020; this drama was really popular when it first came out. you could also try boss & me and my sunshine since they're from the same author of love 020 and the characters are linked in some way (if you check out the novels).

i agree with the first part but not that last sentence you made (it’s not entirely false though). but we can’t judge whether people/voters have watched all or not —we’re not them.

i’m sure it’s obvious to you that only 5 dramas makes it to each list/poll. this was why i recommended in another comment for the admin to next time, make different polls for webdramas and tv dramas. by mixing the two, it makes each category very limited to judge what is worthy of an award. for example, let’s just say in one poll, we have 5 tv dramas nominated. then in another poll it would be 5 webdramas. this not only makes it fairer but also enable for many more users on MDL to feel inclusive from their votes (from another post) prior to this post (with the polls).

found some small errors in the best couple section :)

1. “xiao tan” not “xiao tian”
2. “mo lian cheng” not “mo leng cheng”
3. shouldn’t the name of the characters be listed and not the actors? for legend of yunxi, it should be long feiye and han yunxi
4. should be “jin mi” not “jing mi”

tbh, i dont think it’s ridiculous because a majority of votes on MDL are international fans and ashes of love has been doing well locally and internationally. if i were to be surprised about anything it would be why fuyao is holding 2nd place in that category and not story of yanxi palace :/ i might be too bias, but i think fuyao was an okay drama and imo it shouldnt even be on that list...

if i remember correctly, she was a flower deity but more known as a water immortal?

this might be an unpopular opinion, but i think it’s unfair to judge the two together (including other dramas listed on the poll). the reason? bloody romance was produced as a webdrama therefore was only streamed online, which also explains the short number of eps and low-budget production. whereas ashes of love was produced as a television drama (with online streaming, so more media exposure), therefore was actually broadcasted on tv which was why it had longer eps (as far as i know, this is not something that producers can always control, that is why we often hear dramas being cut short or extended depending on ratings).

however, i do agree that bloody romance is underrated since li yitong has been showing potential acting skills since demon girl and legend of the condor heroes :) the drama is probably underrated as well because people might’ve misjudged by comparing it to the novel since the novel was something quite content-heavy to enjoy.

i think with ashes of love, it wasn’t just the plot that intrigued most people, but it was the acting. prior to the drama production, the novel itself was also already popular in china and internationally. moreover, yang zi and deng lun already had a couple fanbase since their 2013 drama Flowers in Fog. this might be another unpopular opinion, but i found the actors from ashes of love better than legend of fu yao (which was honestly a flop imo...yang mi could’ve done so much better, the same with ethan).

the thing with legend of fuyao, they spent so much budget on the set designs and costumes that i think they’ve forgotten how to make the plot interesting, new and logical (yang mi’s character adding a red mark on her face to change her identity was honestly a joke to me. first of all, she had something similar from Eternal Love (dot on forehead) and second of all, adding the fake birth mark in fuyao just to make other characters can’t recognise her true identity...it just wasn’t convincing. i think the only reason why fuyao even made it on the poll is because yang mi has such a big fanbase (internationally) after the success of Eternal Love. on douban, fuyao actually has low ratings and people are actually laughing about what a flop it is :/

tbh i wish MLD could’ve done a better job with the polls because i think it’s unfair to put webdramas and tv dramas together ⏤they're different not only in terms of quality but also the way they promote them to the audience (us internationals aren't able to notice this cause we don't live in china, so it's understandable).

especially with chinese dramas, there tends to be a difference between originality whether it’s produced as a web drama or tv drama. producers often find gaps in webdrama laws therefore are able to explore more genres (for example, time travelling: as seen from The Eternal Love); while in tv dramas there are often limits in what scriptwriters can write about (for example, time travelling is actually banned in china to be broadcasted on tv [after bu bu jing xin era, i think]. personally, i become a little annoyed when i see people comparing a webdrama over a tv drama (or the other way around) because they're not the same. period.

i may be a little bias because ashes of love is more my cup of tea, but amongst all the chinese dramas released this year (tv), i do think ashes of love deserved all the attention it got to be the "best chinese tv drama of 2018" (although i'm leaning more towards story of yanxi palace). if i were to compare it to another drama, it would be the story of yanxi palace. and why am i able to compare it to that? because it's a tv drama, not a webdrama.

it's interesting because some of the dramas listed are doing very well internationally while in china it was a big fail (coughcough...fuyao). anywayyy, excuse my long post, i just wanted to express my own opinion too haha :’p no harm intended! i think it’s quite subjective to everyone and this is just my take on it. happy voting and HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D

Best Chinese Drama of 2018:
Story of Yanxi Palace

Best Chinese Movie of 2018:
Shadow

Best Historical Drama:
Story of Yanxi Palace

Best Wuxia/Xianxia Drama:
Ashes of Love

Best School/Youth Drama:
Meteor Garden

Best Novel/Manhua/Webtoon Adaptation:
Ashes of Love

Best Chinese Actor:
Deng Lun as Feng Huang/Xu Feng (Ashes of Love)

Best Chinese Actress:
1. Wu Jin Yan as Lady Ling / Consort Wei Ying Luo / Empress Xiao Yi Chun (Story of Yanxi Palace)
2. Yang Zi as Jin Mi (Ashes of Love)

Best Chinese Supporting Actor:
1. Luo Yunxi as Run Yu (Ashes of Love)
2. Yalkun Merxat as Gu Qi Shao (Legend of Yunxi)

Best Chinese Supporting Actress:
1. Qin Lan as Xiaoxiaochun/Lady Fuca (Story of Yanxi Palace)
2. Charmaine Sheh as Consort Xian/The Step Empress (Story of Yanxi Palace)

Best Couple:
Deng Lun (Xu Feng) & Yang Zi (Jin Mi) (Ashes of Love)

Best Bromance:
F4 (Meteor Garden)

Best OST:
1. Unsullied (不染) - Mao Buyi (Ashes of Love)
2. Upwards to the Moon (左手指月) - Sa Dingding (Ashes of Love)
3. Look (看) - Lu Hu (Story of Yanxi Palace)

trust me, you will be satisfied with the ending :')
i still cannot get over how breathtaking this drama was!

i think deciding which is better is quite subjective. i personally think S2 is better because the plot seems more exciting (judging from the released eps). that’s not to say that i don’t love S1 tho :))