What the Shell Lounge Bar (Xiang Liu's Underwater Luxury Lounge)

 Janex:

https://youtu.be/d85EQqvJhng?si=WbA3NEXCTdnI47bW

Wow, new trailer-under the skin!

It looks so good!  Though more ... dark than the first one.

 Janex:

https://youtu.be/d85EQqvJhng?si=WbA3NEXCTdnI47bW

Wow, new trailer-under the skin!

Is that potential a darker Shen Yi that I'm seeing? I'm hoping they'll explore some of his sharper edges in the second season.

 Kokuto:

I have started A Lifetime of Love.

Five episodes in, and dare I say it?  I'm having fun.  lol  Not as a great show, but at the production and how outrageous Chi Chen / Huang XiaoMing is.  The CGI budget on this show must have been HUGE... and so very wasteful.

It's also fun trying seeing the pre-history of the LYF characters and some of the actors.

One of these days I will try attempt this. (≧▽≦) I'm trying very hard to be creative. 

 liddi:

Yay! 5 episodes! How long did it take you to cover that much?

How do you find the acting and characterisations thus far? Do share as you continue your journey! Have you met the Flame Emperor, who would become the Yellow Emperor in LYF? It's surreal to think that Hou Changrong played the two wiliest foxes who continued to played chess against each other against the backdrop of the Great Wilderness long after the Flame Emperor had passed away.

Hmmm.  Maybe about 3 or 4  hours?  I just watched binged all five episodes on one night.

The acting is ok, but they have a lot to overcome, with the CGI and the costuming and sets, not to mention the script and story.  Characterization ... I'm not sure because I haven't read the book, but it seems to be a bit thin.  Like I'm not sure why people like or hate others.  And no one has really grabbed me yet.

That's part of what I'm having fun with -- realizing who these characters are and where I've seen these actors before.  Like Jing Shi (Nuo Nai / Yu Shi), who wasn't in the drama, I think, who appears to be the love interest for Yusang, is played by the actor who assassinated XY in episode 30!  I haven't seen much of Granddaddy Emperor in this, but I just watched that actor in Are You the One?  playing ZWY's grandfather in law.  And the Xiyan prince, Yu Chen, I didn't recognize, as I think he gained some weight, but he was Yang Xiu, the scholar enemy of Sima Yi from Advisor Alliance.

Just starting, but I will say I haven't gotten the impression that Grandaddy Emperor is all that crafty and strategic, YET.  They are also pushing that Royal Mother of Jade Mountain is in love with the Flame Emperor... who is dodging her. lol!

Also, Zhu Rhong!  Well, I won't go with him being a total a'hole, yet, but he is an aggressive, kill happy,  unlikable insubordinate.  He's already stirring sh8t and is trouble.  I can't believe he's Feng Long's grandfather, or Little Zhu Rong turned out to be such a compromiser.  How did he survive his dad?

 HeadInTheClouds:

I read 'outrageous' as. 'gorgeous' and was seriously wondering if you didn't see the oil dripping off him . Lol. hXM is a good looking man, but he was at his peak oily era here. Although, liddi mentioned that it improves later.

LOL!  No, not gorgeous.  Outrageous, cause his Chi Chen has no filter and just says and does whatever strikes him -- which of course gets him in trouble with any number of people, even Ah Heng, who he wants to impress.

Also, he first appears as Tarzan, swinging thru the trees with a herd of every jungle animal you can think of that totally does not belong in the forest or even with each other.  Plus he has an Aquaman like effect to control or deal with the animals (as well as a weapon), where he yells and concentric circles ripples out of his mouth to strike things!  ahahahahah.  It is so over the top.

Oh, and he basically tells Royal Mother he's there to steal the Pangu Bow, then he ties a black cloth around his lower face, and dons a BRIGHT RED and black cloak, to 'sneak' into the treasury.  Of course, he eyeballs the bow when finds it, like he knows it is probably trapped, but then he just shrugs, like he doesn't need to worry about traps, and grabs it.   Such a goober.  hahahaha

 plor20:

One of these days I will try attempt this. (≧▽≦) I'm trying very hard to be creative. 

Your time is better spent on that.  This is cheesy fun, if you like laughing at ... questionable choices, like Mystery Theater 3000.  It's like EVERYTHING is over done.  These costumes and sets look like they were designed by Liberace -- when in doubt, add more ... and paint it gold!  And why bother using any real effect, when they can CGI the heck out of it.

I'm telling you, despite all the complaints from some folks, we should be counting our blessings that LYF went with as little CGI as possible.

 liddi:

True. The intricate relationships between the different kingdoms, characters and even locations are not readily understandable. To be honest, I often wonder whether politics and ties in the Great Wilderness (be it in Lost You Forever or A Lifetime Love) are more comprehensible for me only because I read the novels first. Would it be as evident if I had gone in blind? I can't really tell.

Well ... I figured it out fairly quickly in LYF, but the cast wasn't as large as ALTL / Once Promised.  But if I hadn't watched LYF first and discussed it so much, I think it would have taken me a while for ALTL, especially since they don't write the characters names on the screen when they first appear, and sometimes they don't even say them.  For example, Hong Jiang's first appearance, Zhu Rong doesn't even say his name!  And later he only says Xing, so if I didn't have your list, I'd have been lost.  Though ... even in his first scene, there was something rigid about the character, that made me wonder if it was him.  lol   But, as it was, I pretty much knew who the characters were and the places and the situation from the first episode.

 liddi:

Yup. Jing Shi is Mu Fei who assassinated Xiao Yao in the Peach Blossom Forest. And Yu Chen (Qing Yang in the novel) is Yang Xiu from Advisors' Alliance. Do you recognise Zhi Ruo (Zhong Yi - Cang Xuan's father)?

Yes!  I actually think Luo Yun Xi look so much better in this older show, with a little weight.  And Yuan Mo's father (Li Xin Ze) showed up in the episodes I watched tonight!  He's playing a Chenrong general named Ju Ze.  I don't recognize that character, though.

 liddi:

Madam Jade (Royal Mother) was definitely in love with the Xuan Mu king (Flame Emperor), which he never reciprocated and never showed up on Jade Mountain for the regular Peach Banquet. In the novel, the Flame Emperor, the Royal Mother and Xie Zu were bosom friends who travelled and played together when they were young, until the Royal Mother was abandoned when Xie Zu suddenly left to join the young man she was in love with; while the Flame Emperor departed to look for the girl he fell in love with by the stream years ago.

I remembered that the three of them were friends, but I didn't realize Royal Mother actually was in love with the Flame Emperor, whose story we haven't really gotten in ALTL yet.  But we haven't gotten Xie Zu or Grandfather Emperor's story yet, either.

 liddi:

As for the Xuan Yang king (Yellow Emperor), I feel that the drama whitewashed him a lot and made him far more fatherly than he was in the novel. To be honest, I didn't find him particularly threatening here, unlike the novel. Likewise, the drama made it such that A Mo (A Heng)'s engagement to Sheng Lun (Shao Hao) was without her knowledge, unlike the novel where when she fell in love with Chi Chen, she was well aware that she was betrothed.

I think LYF drama definitely whitewashed him, or glossed over his past, and I'm wondering if this is going to do the same?  Cause he actually said it was the Flame Emperor who was the invader of  Xiyan!  And it his son, Yu Chen, who seems to be making / pushing for decisions, as opposed to him.  But it is early yet, so we'll see if they portray him more accurately.

Hmmm.  That's a change with A Mo .... but probably because of the censors.

 liddi:

I know right? Zhu Rong (Yan Zhuan) was already an unlikeable character in the novel, but in the drama, Tong Zheng was even worse. And yet in Lost You Forever and the extra side story of Once Promised, little Yan Zhuan and Feng Long turned out to be nothing like him. Perhaps in some ways, Xin Yue takes after him, but in that respect, I feel that hers is one that was partially attributed to the circumstances in which she grew up in. As for little Yan Zhuan, the extra side story revealed that he used to bully Hou Tu (Luo Jia) as a child, so little Yan Zhuan was not such a meek boy either. My guess is that he learnt to adapt and compromise when Shen Nong fell, and protected his fellow countrymen in a different way.

That actually makes sense for Little Zhu Rong, with his dad being such a ... harsh character.  But clearly the events of the war and maybe other things allowed him to show his more patient and kinder side.  I get the feeling that he is smarter than his dad though, who seems to rely on being strong.  At least Zhu Rong is consistent, then.  lol

 liddi:

To be fair, in the novel, Chi Chen's powers encompassed all five elements, and he had the power to control the beasts and plants, hence he was called the Beast King. But swinging around like Tarzan, despite him being described to be wild and animalistic in the Ch1, was mind-boggling. I don't know how Huang Xiaoming kept a straight face in those scenes.

Chi Chen as Tarzan was just so cheesy.  I wish they didn't start the drama like that, cause it definitely made me reconsider watching the drama the first time.  There's lots of time I wondered how Huang Xio Ming kept a straight face in this drama.  Especially when he saw that wig on his head.  It so bad.

Regardless, for me, using the Aquaman talks to fish effect for Chi Chen controlling animals was not a good look either, but that may be personal bias.

 liddi:

The premise of Once Promised is such that it does require far more CGI compared to LYF because the narrative is very much mired in the fantasy aspect - from various winged mounts including the roc Xiao Yao, the aerial fights, battles, to Yu Abyss, even the Northern Depths where Chi Chen was sent to heal. We also have A Bi and Lie Yang. It is just unfortunate that the CGI results were not convincing, especially when the drama is supposed to be the first one in China to use the Emmy Award winning Super IP's Previzion Super Technology to achieve real-time imaging, and constructed the fantastical creatures using Bionic mechanical models and MSC digital special effects.

For sure!  This was definitely a grand fantasy epic, whereas LYF was more of a personal, character driven tale that had some magic in it.  Though the novel had more magic and fantasy in it, but I'm fine with it not all being included -- like the big aerial battles with flying mounts.

Maybe when it came out the CGI was ok for ALTL, but it did NOT age well.  And it was overused.  It must have cost a small fortune to do all the CGI.  A Bi isn't bad, though he looks more like an fairly good animated character that wandered into the show.

 liddi:

And let's not get me started on the costumes, which took me out of the story straight away. In comparison, LYF is a gorgeous production despite the occasional hit and misses in CGI.

The costumes ... how / why did they look so cheap?  And WHY did some of them look more like western fantasy costumes than Chinese costumes?  A Mo is literally running around in a faux European medieval gown.  Zhu Rong is in gold gauze and gold lame.  Why do they have leather straps and buckles instead of buttons, and worse, on polyster?  Why is Jing Shi wearing a faux Roman metal cuirass, complete with dished out fake abs?  It is all just awful.  Daddy Emperor and Jing Shi are wearing passable Chinese fantasy outfits, but they still look kind of cheap.

And sets are just overdone both in decoration and color.  And neither the sets or the costumes have anything specific to their countries, like they do in LYF, where the designer obviously wanted to give each place an unique visual cultural style and motifs.

 liddi:

Now that you are watching, it reminds me that I should go back and finish the entire drama some time - I ended up skipping to certain scenes in the drama due to lack of time. Who knows, at this rate, you might actually finish the drama way before me!

I did another 5 episodes last night.  It is still full of LOL moments, but the story is starting to pull me in.  Or maybe, more precisely, the connections and comparisons to LYF are holding my interest.  I still can't let go of LYF, and this, however badly done, allows me stay a little longer in the world. ;p

From twitter.  Obviously, the bear biscuits is a meme I'm not familiar with ... but I still found this funny.

https://x.com/tlmssusu/status/1838973747078025452

 Kokuto:

Congrats!  Everyone should get a gold star for finishing A Life Time Love.  Especially if you didn't like the ML!  LOL!

I'm still waiting for a character to really hook me, but it hasn't happened yet.  Not going to lie, alot of my interest is probably comparing the characters to LYF characters.  Though he didn't do much, the LYF Chi Chen certainly was more eye catching in LYF.

Hahaha i would have exploded in laughter if THAT version of ChiChen came out in LYF and dropped it straight away! Imagine XL supposedly being similar to him.. 

 Kokuto:

Well ... I figured it out fairly quickly in LYF, but the cast wasn't as large as ALTL / Once Promised.  But if I hadn't watched LYF first and discussed it so much, I think it would have taken me a while for ALTL, especially since they don't write the characters names on the screen when they first appear, and sometimes they don't even say them.  For example, Hong Jiang's first appearance, Zhu Rong doesn't even say his name!  And later he only says Xing, so if I didn't have your list, I'd have been lost.  Though ... even in his first scene, there was something rigid about the character, that made me wonder if it was him.  lol   But, as it was, I pretty much knew who the characters were and the places and the situation from the first episode.

LOL! Glad the list helped you identify Hong Jiang! It took me quite a while to figure out who's who, and even then, I too get confused, especially when mapping Shao Hao's siblings to their counterparts in ALTL. Incidentally I have edited the mapping to include more names and locations. Will continue to edit as and when I notice anything else. Do let me know if you see any in the drama that doesn't sound quite right. 

 Kokuto:

Yes!  I actually think Luo Yun Xi look so much better in this older show, with a little weight.  And Yuan Mo's father (Li Xin Ze) showed up in the episodes I watched tonight!  He's playing a Chenrong general named Ju Ze.  I don't recognize that character, though.

Are you referring to Jun Ze in Ep6? Actually that's not Yuan Mo's father - the one who played Yuan Mo's father is Zong Fengyan, not Li Xinze. I haven't been able to associate this character with anyone in Once Promised yet either... his character description simply says he's a minister of Xuan Mu. 

BTW, do you recognise the Ling Yun king (Sheng Lun's father)? It didn't occur to me until I went to check the cast credits, and then only did I realise he was in Go East as Assistant Minister Tan Lin who masterminded the killings of Dou Chun and Cao Huo, and was finally sentenced to death for his crime. 

 Kokuto:

I think LYF drama definitely whitewashed him, or glossed over his past, and I'm wondering if this is going to do the same?  Cause he actually said it was the Flame Emperor who was the invader of  Xiyan!  And it his son, Yu Chen, who seems to be making / pushing for decisions, as opposed to him.  But it is early yet, so we'll see if they portray him more accurately.

Hmm... I feel that LYF the drama's depiction of the Yellow Emperor is pretty much in line with what was in the novel. He lived with a lot of regrets at the time, and was far more indulgent of Xiao Yao, while slowly preparing Cang Xuan for the throne and mentoring him after that. 

As for Yu Chen saying that the Flame Emperor invaded Xuan Yang, based on the prologue in both LYF and OP, there were initially only two main powers in the Great Wilderness - Shen Nong and Gao Xin, and it was only thousands of years later, that the Yellow Emperor led the small Xuan Yuan tribe and built it into the 3rd main power of the Great Wilderness. And in the novel, Qing Yang was a trusted son but the real power and decision maker was always the Yellow Emperor. Regardless, Qing Yang himself was cunning and manipulative as well, as the Yellow Emperor was well aware. So there was always a lot of wariness between father and son(s), and the Yellow Emperor certainly ensured that Qing Yang did not get too powerful and threaten his position, and he was not above using his sons to check each other.

 Kokuto:

That actually makes sense for Little Zhu Rong, with his dad being such a ... harsh character.  But clearly the events of the war and maybe other things allowed him to show his more patient and kinder side.  I get the feeling that he is smarter than his dad though, who seems to rely on being strong.  At least Zhu Rong is consistent, then.  lol

The novels described it well:

It was said that Little Yan Zhuan never shied away from his identity as a descendant of Shen Nong, and spared no effort to fight for the interests of the people of the Central Plains. He never concealed his intentions before the Yellow Emperor, stating that his governance over the Central Plains aimed to bring prosperity and abundance to the region, and allow the people of the Central Plains who have suffered through wars, to lead a good life. For this reason, Little Yan Zhuan suffered a lot of slander and pressure. Gradually, the clans of the Central Plains not only stopped being suspicious of Little Yan Zhuan but also greatly respected him. Yan Zhuan’s death represented the imperial integrity of the royal family’s heart for their homeland, so how was Little Yan Zhuan’s survival not an alternate manifestation of the same imperial integrity?

-- Lost You Forever, Vol 1 Ch11

After Yan Zhuan finished his prostration and stood up, he looked towards Shen Nong mountain and said, "The only mistake I made in this life was allowing the Yellow Emperor to exploit my hatred for Chi Chen. I believed the Yellow Emperor’s slanders and incited Yu Xiang to lead the campaign. I did want to become the Flame Emperor, to see Chi Chen dead, but I never intended to betray Shen Nong!"

A Heng thought it was no wonder that Yan Zhuan hated the Yellow Emperor so much. It turned out the Yellow Emperor managed to kill Yu Xiang by deceiving and using Yan Zhuan.

Yan Zhuan looked back at A Heng. "How can a despicable man like the Yellow Emperor understand the ties of family bloodlines. These are the roots of every generation, but he came to negotiate with me about which ministerial position could buy my only roots. I really wanted to totally incinerate him, let him understand that not everything in the world could be bought! Seeing you did not launch a sneak attack and interrupt me paying my respects earlier, I will spare your life. Hurry up and escape!"

-- Once Promised Vol 2 Ch10  (Chapter 13)

They both loved their homeland, but manifested that patriotism and love in different ways - Yan Zhuan would rather sacrifice himself and die than surrender; while his son would surrender, knowing that the outcome cannot be changed, so that he could survive and protect his fellow countrymen as best as he could.

All this is moot as far as Tong Zheng is concerned though. You will see why.

 Kokuto:

Maybe when it came out the CGI was ok for ALTL, but it did NOT age well.  And it was overused.  It must have cost a small fortune to do all the CGI.  A Bi isn't bad, though he looks more like an fairly good animated character that wandered into the show.

A Bi is not true to the novel as well - he is supposed to be a black winged fox. Still, I guess it is less appealing to have a black fox being cute, rather than the reddish one we are given. I don't know that the CGI was acceptable during the time it was released either. You're definitely right about it not aging well, which is really unfortunate.

 Kokuto:

The costumes ... how / why did they look so cheap?  And WHY did some of them look more like western fantasy costumes than Chinese costumes?

 Kokuto:

And sets are just overdone both in decoration and color.  And neither the sets or the costumes have anything specific to their countries, like they do in LYF, where the designer obviously wanted to give each place an unique visual cultural style and motifs.

The costumes and sets are underwhelming. And you're right. It's as if they can't make up their minds whether this is a Chinese or western fantasy so it became a mishmash of everything they can throw at it.

 Kokuto:

I did another 5 episodes last night.  It is still full of LOL moments, but the story is starting to pull me in.  Or maybe, more precisely, the connections and comparisons to LYF are holding my interest.  I still can't let go of LYF, and this, however badly done, allows me stay a little longer in the world. ;p

I understand the feeling. I read Once Promised exactly because of that, but in the end, its narrative was the one that kept me captivated, not just because of LYF. That's how I managed to move past Ep1 of the drama and survive all the glaring issues that bothered me, because I then wanted to see how it was adapted. And to my surprise, I even found myself tearing up at certain scenes despite the cringeworthy CGI (A Heng's first death being one of them). 

I should probably join you soon, if only to do a more comprehensive mapping LOL.