mione

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 ;)

there are so many positives about aol that you couldve pointed out but didn’t, thus l&r really took the spotlight in this article. it’s kind of unfair and makes this article a little...pointless? it’s supposed to be a “comparison” after all...

personally, i think the story in aol had more depth than l&r, which made its quality better. this can be backed up by the many accolades it received. l&r was simply just a love story, while aol actually paired romance with some confronting life values that are worthy to reflect in rl, making it artistically fulfilling to enjoy and analyse (i’m speaking as someone who used to study films). the one major flaw about aol was probably that runyu had more character development than xufeng, and perhaps the screen time between xufeng and jinmi was not as satisfying as the novel.

read through a lot of the comments... some people might disagree with me here, but if we can have the diversity to portray ‘normal’ people with their own life experiences and styles, why can’t it be the same for people with autism (as they too, have their own life experiences and lifestyles)? in the case of iotnbo, this was just one side of an individual dealing with ‘that’ level of autism. while there are different levels of autism, must all (or the less shown type) be shown in one drama to represent everyone who has been diagnosed with autism? and to what degree is deemed as appropriate to show on the screen to a huge audience of ‘normal’ people and for the portrayal of autism to not be seen as “stereotypical”? <— anyone see what’s so wrong with this question? because i do.

^my point is, not all autistic people are the same, nor the non-autistic people are the same either...so...should we also call-out these writers for not representing the non-autistic people enough and say they are poorly depicting us? honestly, there are so many of us, all with different life experiences and personalities. it’s impossible to represent all. in iotnbk, a part of sangtae felt like he was a burden to gangtae because he knew that he is not like everyone else, and a part of the drama was trying to say that we shouldn’t treat autistic people any different from the non-autistic ones even though they may seem very different to us. at the end of the day we’re all humans and we all have life problems, therefore it’s okay to not be okay. the way gangtae gave sangtae the special treatments to let him know that he is different is exactly what this article is unconsciously repeating and this is what may make people feel that characters like his is “stereotypical” —which was not the intention of the story/drama. as a result, i was not surprised to see some people with autism or know someone who is autistic being offended by this article. i would feel the same too because it can make me question my independence, how uncomfortable to know that the type of autism that i have is labelled “stereotypical” (or just sympathising for friends i know on this same spectrum) or the annoying fact of being reminded that i am different and that there must be a certain way that autism should be depicted to represent me and my autism community... like come on, we’re not talking about the stereotypes of girls should play with dolls and boys should play with cars. autism is a disability and yes, differs from person to person, but to label the severity of their autism as “stereotypical” can really rub people the wrong way.

the article said, “ such representations would just foster the cycle of autistic people feeling helpless and others being judgmental of them,” —i was feeling okay with the author’s opinions before i read to the part “judgemental” because i don’t think the author fully understood the character of sangtae, the story and what makes him the star of the show, and this really left a bad taste in my mouth after reading the article.

the drama chose to write a character with autism which may not represent all autistic people, but it certainly gave representation to the autism community by showing a story involving autism (honestly, just like how many of us are asking for more asian representation in hollywood ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but are we really all the same (lifestyle and experience wise) and can everything really be represented? it’s the same for works that try to give the autism community representation like in iotnbo. sangtae may not have been depicted or could’ve been shown with other levels of autism, but every autistic person is their own individual and has their own story to tell. in iotnbo, this was sangtae’s story and was the level of disability he had to live with. so how can this be poor depiction since there are actually people in this world with the same condition? if the writer had written his character as someone with autism but only show him stuttering throughout the show to make him stand out and shows no other signs of autism —this is one example of what would be considered as poor depiction. on the other hand, there are real people like sangtae in this world; so i really don’t understand how his character was poorly depicted...

i hope i got my pov delivered because i’m terrible at explaining things :’) not meant to offend or change anyone’s mind either. just some questions to think about ;)


edit — something i would like to add which i think is more subjective: it feels kind of wrong to say that portrayals of autism on the spectrum like sangtae’s is “stereotypical” because it makes it seem like we should exclude/cancel from portraying them like that anymore on the screen/in the media...because it’s too “stereotypical”. i’m not saying those with other levels of autism should be ignored, but many of them actually live a normal life and we might not even be aware that they have autism. not saying these people should be not represented either, but in the case of iotnbo, without a character like sangtae then there wouldn’t be a story like that to begin with. moreover, there are many people sitting on the same spectrum as him. should we see their disability as stereotypical?

i think characters sitting on the same spectrum as sangtae gets shown more often because they are more expressive for the act and it is clearly evident to the audience that, well, they have a disability. in sangtae’s case, it allows for his character to not only be more expressive, but its impact helps us see how it affects his level of traumas and his ways of thinking about life and people in the story. essentially, his character gave growth (because of who he is) to gangtae and mun yeong, and even to himself. and honestly, if there was anything that’s stereotypical about his condition then it’s the fact that there are some people who think people like sangtae cannot live a normal life, have ambitions and has his own way of thinking and coping with situations. this drama addresses these issues and raises the awareness that autistic people can in fact be treated just like everyone else. so yeah, i strongly disagree that there was a poor depiction of autism in the drama, because while —as the author of the article expressed —it can be seen as “stereotypical”, it does not mean that it was poorly depicted or represented.

honestly, well said!