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

It's HERE!!!  Go East is starting to air tonight at 7pm!  Buckle in!  It's SIX episodes on the first day!

Also, I've started a Tan Jian Ci / Yuan Mo chat topic on the Go East page:

https://mydramalist.com/discussions/square-pavilion/128273-yuan-mo-embassy-aka-xl-recovery?p=3117767&page=1

 joas:

Theres a photo of XL here with messy hair down. It's somewhere after the middle of the clip. Which scene is this from? Whirlpool?

https://video.weibo.com/show?fid=1034:5070217542565962

The whirlpool scene was never in the leaked script. Perhaps a BTS before they did Xiang Liu's hairdo during the scene where he meets Xiao Yao by the sea during Cang Xuan and A Nian's wedding. This scene was one of 5 postcards that came with the 2023 novel. 

I saw a video ... maybe I saved it.  But it had Maoqui coming in for a landing, and I didn't remember seeing that scene either.  I will see if I can find it in my giant pile of LYF Stuff folder.  Got to get better about organizing.

 joas:

Wow u girls are like XL encyclopedia here! The right place to ask..

Well, most of us have been here ... forever.  lol  But yes, we talk alot.

Plus, the mods made me mad when they deleted alot of the XL S1 photo gallery a few times and reported all the doubles and triples and that's when I found that pic.

 HeadInTheClouds:

My TV is still dead. Before it died, I managed to watch up to episode 9. Still have not gone pass it. I'm pretty much only watching to stare at XL, except he's barely in it passed the bride robbery sequence, and it's just counting down until he dies so I feel sad watching *cries*. Still have not manage to bring myself to watch the final battle scene. *I'm as fearful as XY. LOL*

As someone said on Weibo, "We waited a year to to say farewell to an old friend", which had me tearing up when I first read it, because it's exactly what it is - waiting an entire year to watch him die in the end. Your reluctance to continue watching is very understandable. I am currently reliving the novel through the audiobook and I still tear up in various scenes, even those that I did not expect to tear up. Xiao Yao has met A Heng... so it's the Shaman king next, and of course, listening to the song of the merpeople together.

 HeadInTheClouds:

Sheng Yi Lun not only didn't have the acting chop to pull-off Shao Hao, he also lacked charisma and presence. Shao Hao and Chi You are like fire and ice so you need to buy that these two could go up against each other. Unfortunately, Sheng Yi Lun couldn't really match up against Huang Xiao Ming at all. His weak acting mans that his other key relationships (with  Qing Yang in particular) also didn't work. 

Apart from his appearance which is how I imagined Shao Hao, everything else just feels lacking. The casting is problematic - I don't find any chemistry between Shao Hao and Qing Yang either, or Qing Yang with the rest of his siblings.

 HeadInTheClouds:

Hmm, not sure how I feel about making Shao Hao less callous or making the Yellow Emperor less ambitious/ruthless. I wondered if it's due in part to censorship and political reasons with the Yellow Emperor?

To be honest, I don't feel that Shao Hao is callous in the novel. Manipulative, devious, often frighteningly cold, he is like still waters... almost unfathomable. Nonetheless, we as readers understand him, even if we do not necessarily agree with his choices. For all the changes to make his decisions less shocking, I feel the drama loses the part of Shao Hao that makes him the fascinating character that he is - or perhaps that is in part due to the delivery as well.

As for the Yellow Emperor, he is nothing to write home about either. What little I've seen so far seems to indicate that he is definitely more whitewashed compared to the novel. I haven't watched the later episodes - Qing Yang's death, A Heng being convinced to lead the Xuan Yuan army against Shen Nong, the Yellow Emperor trying to kill A Heng after she killed Yi Peng to avenge Zhong Yi, so I don't know whether he gets worse down the road. Nonetheless, there are clear changes to make the characters more acceptable - including having A Heng's engagement to Shao Hao a recent occurrence that she was not aware of when she first met Chi Chen, rather than having her falling in love with Chi Chen despite being fully aware that she was betrothed. I see the same thing happening with Shao Hao turning back after obtaining half the jade egg - because to have him callously leave without a backward glance was not acceptable.

 HeadInTheClouds:

Mmmm! Am I a sucker for punishment to expose myself to poorly casted, atrocious acting, ugly cinematography and CGI? Plus emotional torture of everyone dying left right and centre? I don't know if I'm that much of a masochist, liddi :-).

Can't fault me for trying.... LOL

 HeadInTheClouds:

I wonder how I would judge Once Promised if I was to read it again now? Some of my opinions on Lost You Forever definately changed with this re-read. Did you read Lost You Forever before the drama? 

Did you read Once Promised before or after Lost You Forever?

I read Lost You Forever long before the drama aired, and was very unmotivated when it was finally broadcast because I had been burnt so many times by poor adaptations of Tong Hua's works with the exception of Scarlet Heart. I could not move on from Scarlet Heart for a long long time afterwards. Who would have thought that 12 years later (with 3 less than impressive adaptations in between), I would find myself unable to move on from LYF too.

I find that having read Once Promised, there is newfound revelation in my re-read (or in this case, re-listen) of LYF - whether it is the world that is being described, inner monologue or dialogue. Revisiting this scene after reading Once Promised's description about Cang Xuan seeing his last remaining relative taken away from him, just had me tearing up all over, when we remember that he was just a boy when he lost everyone:

Inebriated, Cang Xuan could not distinguish between the past and the present. He murmured, “Don’t be afraid, I’ve grown up and will never let anyone harm you. I won’t let you go to Jade Mountain again... You will be with me forever!”

“Auntie, I can protect Xiao Yao. Please don’t send her to Jade Mountain...”

“Auntie, Xiao Yao and I promised to always be together...Xiao Yao, don’t leave! Auntie, I’m scared...”

-- Vol 3 Ch2  (Chapter 35)

Do share how you feel if you revisit Once Promised. Honestly, Chi Chen is not the type of character I gravitate towards, and I much preferred Shao Hao, for all his faults. Nonetheless, I felt that he changed  for the better as a character over the course of the novel, and there is clear growth, which I truly appreciated, making me root for them when they finally could make plans for the future, and ache for them desperately when it was all torn down the next moment. 

And of course, Once Promised had me tearing up from the end of Vol 1 pretty much to the end of Vol 2.

 HeadInTheClouds:

Aha! We have a taker. Looks like Kokuto tipped thr masochism scale :-). Prepare to have Tarzan Chi You swinging towards you on the nearest vine, Ko!!!

LOL! But I am guessing that Tarzan Chi Chen will be taking a backseat for the moment now that Yuan Mo is in town, right @Kokuto?

 joas:

I should have searched the discussion section during s1. I only went into the comments and didnt hang around for long. I probably got into yaoliu quite late, when xy discovered ffb was xl. Which moment started it for u all?

Time to watch r u the 1 and then go east!

Like everything about LYF 1, those topics and comments were on fire and so huge.  We had two XL centric ones there.  One for chat about everything and one for a deep dive discussion of the book and drama.  Both are impossible to search.   O_O

I was pretty much hooked from episode 3, his first appearance, and knew nothing!  XL was beautiful and graceful and when he took off the mask, riveting.  And unlike other characters I'd seen in Cdramas up till then, unpredictable and ruthless.  I was like WTF?  What is going to happen with this pair?

Are You the One remains an entertaining hidden gem.  And I'm loving Go East.

 Kokuto:

Like everything about LYF 1, those topics and comments were on fire and so huge.  We had two XL centric ones there.  One for chat about everything and one for a deep dive discussion of the book and drama.  Both are impossible to search.   O_O

I was pretty much hooked from episode 3, his first appearance, and knew nothing!  XL was beautiful and graceful and when he took off the mask, riveting.  And unlike other characters I'd seen in Cdramas up till then, unpredictable and ruthless.  I was like WTF?  What is going to happen with this pair?

Are You the One remains an entertaining hidden gem.  And I'm loving Go East.

Wow epi 3 is quite early!

 My first impression of XL was they got the dubbing voice too low for his character. It wasnt what i expected from his visuals. Turns out, that was tjcs actual voice. Hahaha.. for the next few episodes, they would play that sad ahh ahh song as his bgm so i knew they were going to turn him into a tragic character. He wasnt really sad at that point. And then i got quite mad at him for leaving XY on the island. I only started shipping YaoLiu when FFB showed that rejected puppy look after XY stopped him from going for her neck. And his face change when XY went back on her word and said she had stuff to do, just sealed YaoLiu for me. 

I avoided the LYF page because i found out this ship was going to sink. And that he would have a BE..  it was difficult watching s1 after that. 

 Kikinaki:

I'm ashamed to say I haven't watched the season 2 .....I'm just too nervous 

I haven't finished season 2 either :-)