mione

that was exactly my point :’) the “game” was just unnecessary. if anything, it feels out of place and very random. would’ve been easier and more enjoyable if they had just removed the transmigration like minglan.

that's a poor excuse. the fl in the story of minglan was also transmigrated, but the screenwriter managed just fine... it will surprise you that many fl in novels that have been adapted into dramas/films —many of them either transmigrate or reincarnate. it's a common and popular trope in chinese modern literature haha

Unfortunately I don’t know if there’s an english translation :(

I’m currently reading the novel, and it is soooooo much better!

I reckon they should’ve formatted the drama the way Minglan was formatted (but with less ep obviously) because it would’ve been really interesting to see the farmers’ slice-of-life explored instead of the upper class intrigues, just for a change. This drama sort of did do that in the first few ep, which gave it a strong start, but after the ep where the ML left the village, everything became pointless and idk…boring? I just started to question —what’s the point of this drama?

The production team clearly had the resources to do so much better (love the OST!), but the screenwriter butchered the original source material by changing the story to a “game”. But I shouldn’t really be surprised after browsing through her past works lol. I dare say this is her most lazy one.

Anyways, i’ll come back to update on the novel. it is supppper long!

oooh i see. that does make some sense now. thanks for the insight!

but i think i will still stand by my original opinion that the episode limit shouldn't be an excuse. i think it's most likely the director's fault. it seem to be a common 'mistake' made by him. i've seen some of the other dramas he had directed in the past, and most of them have the same problem —where second half of the drama becomes somewhat anticlimatic, and then bam! skip to happy ending. it's like he purposely sucks the audience into the drama with a very grand opening, and then becomes lazy to finish it off with the same lvl of grandness.

idk, that would seem like a pretty poor excuse imo because the 40eps limit has been implemented in the industry for a couple of years now, so it shouldn't even be an excuse :/

i enjoyed this drama. but my one critic would be that after ep 28, everything just became sort of... anticlimatic? :') the ending also felt rushed, and it wasn't very satisfying after all those political games and fights.

i think he is still smart and cunning, but at the same time he is intimidated and saddened by his new position as emperor —because of certain restrictions that comes with the status.

notice how his friendship with general zhou is a bit awkward now? he was even surprised how hard it was for yuru to meet him, compared to their time in youzhou.

he is also ill, so it adds a lot of stress. especially because his only son is so useless too lmao

i might be wrong on this but i read somewhere years ago that the story in this drama takes place thousands of years before eternal love. it’s also considered a spin-off because it was created by the same production team of eternal love. the only difference from eternal love is that it was not adapted from a novel.

keep going! i promise it will become a lot more interesting. i found the first 20eps pretty boring, but after finishing the drama and going back to rewatch them, i learnt to appreciate them because it shows a lot of story and character development.

i feel like people either really like her or don't like her at all (as an actress), so you don't have to like her so bad haha. personally, i've seen her on the screen since my teen years, so i do like her screen presence. it's something nostalgic for me, i guess. however, i do believe her most charming days in her acting career were between 2006-11. for me, i fell in love with her after her role as guo xiang in return of the condor heroes, and later it was chinese paladin 3, and then jade palace lockheart.

i know she became most/more popular recently because of eternal love, but to me it wasn't her best; but this is a subjective opinion, so you can only judge this when you've seen the drama for yourself. i also think she's better in historical/ancient drama than modern; some actors just give off 'the vibe' meant to be for certain genres, you know? :')

i am looking forward to this new drama, of course. if you still cannot convince yourself to like her acting from her past dramas, then maybe try variety shows? if not, then like what sylvia said, she might not be of your taste. i had a similar case with dilreba in the past; i did not enjoy her acting, but she was super charming on tv shows like keep running and go fighting. so now, it's easier for me to like her in dramas lololl.

maybe you can give 'love and destiny' a go too. superb acting from rich-experienced actors. i found it really enjoyable. it also got nominated for the international emmy awards, which was well deserving imo.

the entire story is set in a fictional dynasty in the drama. only the novel was set in the han dynasty. the production team changed it to a fictional dynasty for the drama because of new guidelines in china where they could not fictionalise real historical figures, which was what the novel did.

and i'm not sure about the muslim part because it has been a long time since i've revisited this drama. but the tribe where the female lead was raised is called xiongnu. it did exist in the han dynasty because there was a han-xiongnu war.

there’s a period hk drama called ‘can’t buy me love’ starring charmaine sheh and moses chan. it’s a historical romcom, and very light-hearted, cute and sweet. the drama is technically a spin-off of “beyond the realm of conscience”, which was screen-written by the same person, consisting of similar actors. though, beyond the realm is more palace-intrigue (but not so heavy like yanxi palace). contrarily, can’t buy me love is about a spoilt princess with her fu ma (husband). they have very funny dialogues together —poetic and funny, haha. the princess has a very sharp tongue, while her fu ma equally has a sharp tongue too, but is more mischievous.

it really was kind of weird to see LYQ's character change. but it makes sense. cause everything that he does roots from his 'obsession' with her. so as long as it's something that she seeks/want, he will use his power to protect it for her.

i think her prejudiced against yang guo was also influenced by her upbringings. remember that in the first instalment, she had no idea what the difference between right and wrong was until she guo jin. but even after that, she still has her own strong opinions about certain things and issues, so it’s understandable why she felt the way she felt towards yang guo, esp because his father had committed too much evil. and so the chinese believed back in the days, the sins committed by the parents must be paid by their children. weird logic in ancient times, but that’s that. i think this is what also makes huang rong such an interesting and independent female character.

i personally think barbara yung was the best huang rong :) i believe jin yong said so himself too.

omg yes! and esp love that scene where she was having the argument between that old woman (mother of ying ying’s ex-bf at the time) in s2. the proud look on qiping’s face was hilarious :’) she really spoke for all the women viewers of the drama.

yeahh, the novel is not the best of gu man’s. thankfully they improved it for the drama adaptation (although ml still has an aggressive personality). personally, i liked the tone of the drama better than the novel (also because i just like wallace chung haha).

if you’re looking for something kind of “peppiness” then i would put go ahead on hold because it’s a family drama (but very good!). i would recommend le coup because it’s actually a sweet story and the main couple are now married in real life! i think it was directed by the same director as you are my glory too...

you can also check out other adaptations of gu man’s novels: boss & me and my sunshine/silent separation. the characters from these two novels actually all link to love 020 :) (you will understand if you have read the love 020 novel; and well, actually, it’s more like they all
link back to boss&me)

i have recently finished moonlight and thought it was okay too, so maybe you can check this out.

i don’t watch a lot of k and t dramas anymore so i have no rec. however, the thai version of boss&me is coming out soon! so maybe you can start with the chinese ;)