Xiang Liu and You (Yes, You)

 Kokuto:

My dogs said that is true. And I should be giving THEM Valentine treats.

So you should! Those babies work hard to shower you with love every day. They've more than earned their Valentine's treats ;-)

 Kokuto:

Wut??? Surely you guys are going to watch the XL parts?

Yes! After LYF2, I'm looking forward to Go East the most. I really like Tan Jian Ci in costume. I am curious about what he's going to do after Under the Skin 2 ... other than go on vacation. lol!

I'm not sure, to be honest. I see the leak script as turning XL's feelings into unrequited love - this is a complete deviation from the novel as far as I'm concerned. And removing the detail of XY finding out about the Lovers Bugs. And I'm not fond of what I'm reading about the XY's character either. I'm a book purist by this point :-). I'm sure the fans will do compilation videos if I need to get my XL fix. We'll have to see. 

Yes. Go East is also the one that I'm looking forward to as well. I'm not a huge fan of CDrama modern series in general. And I'm still wishing and hoping that Winner is King will get a surprise drop :-).

 nathsketch:

This is hilarious!!

I can't stop laughing.  The forlorn ... "I just want to see his face." 

 nathsketch:

It's like those comments in every god damned post:

檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️檀健次❤️

I know who he is, thanks anyway.

Ahahahahahahahahaha

LOL!  It's just virtual incoherent screaming of his name.

OMG.  It's like the fireworks!  Remember in one of his livestreams, he was trying to answer questions, but a bunch of a$$es kept shooting the virtual fireworks off and he couldn't read the comments and his face kept getting covered up.  Ha!  But times ten on his Bad Mona Lisa video.

 HeadInTheClouds:

So you should! Those babies work hard to shower you with love every day. They've more than earned their Valentine's treats ;-)

Uhn huhn.  They are already beyond spoiled ...and hogging the chair.

 HeadInTheClouds:

I'm not sure, to be honest. I see the leak script as turning XL's feelings into unrequited love - this is a complete deviation from the novel as far as I'm concerned. And removing the detail of XY finding out about the Lovers Bugs. And I'm not fond of what I'm reading about the XY's character either. I'm a book purist by this point :-). I'm sure the fans will do compilation videos if I need to get my XL fix. We'll have to see.

Nooooo!  I guess I've got my Lovers Bugs Blinders on.  It totally can't be a unrequited love!

Yes.  The removal of several scenes is troubling.  But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that what got shot will be different and clearer.

This is true.  We probably will get another compilation from Tencent for each of the MLs.

 Kokuto:

Uhn huhn. They are already beyond spoiled ...and hogging the chair.

Eh! My little-ly used to hog my pillow. Just plodded himself on top of my head as if he had the right to be there more than I do :-)

 Kokuto:

Nooooo! I guess I've got my Lovers Bugs Blinders on. It totally can't be a unrequited love!

Yes. The removal of several scenes is troubling. But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that what got shot will be different and clearer.

Let's hope that yours and liddi's optimism will win out against my pessimism :-). I do wonder if the current conflict between the two fandoms will have any impact. I don't think that it will as re-editing anything will cost money.

I've reached the point where I have a satisfactory coherent interpretation of the novel, so I'm not all jumbled up like I was a month or so ago. The drama will be whatever it will be. I can still watch and appreciate some cuts of TJC's XL :-). I've had fun in the last 5 or so months and met all of you lovely ladies. It has been a really positive experience :-)

 atmospheres:

Is it bad that I'm hoping TJC will have even less scenes in S2 so that I can ff more just to watch his parts and spend less of my time on S2?  lololol

I'll be watching but skipping anything that doesn't have him in it and I'll definitely stop watching after his final scene.

No. Because the episodes that he's appears will have higher metrics and it will show that people are watching for him. hehehe. I also plan to watch his episodes too.

 atmospheres:

Is it bad that I'm hoping TJC will have even less scenes in S2 so that I can ff more just to watch his parts and spend less of my time on S2?  lololol

I'll be watching but skipping anything that doesn't have him in it and I'll definitely stop watching after his final scene.

I don't know if you'll get your wish regarding his screen time. Despite them making changes to the YaoLiu's romance, it's pretty clear by now that XL is a huge draw as an individual character so they'll be foolish not to use him as much as they could. And of course, TJC is a major factor in helping XL shine. And his ending will be in the final episode, so you'll have to hang around until probably the final 20 minutes or so :-).

 plor20:

No. Because the episodes that he's appears will have higher metrics and it will show that people are watching for him. hehehe. I also plan to watch his episodes too.

Yup!

 atmospheres:

his character Li Yifei is interesting and has an edge, TJC is at his best when he plays sardonic and slightly gray "flags".

I'm looking forward to seeing what he'll do with this character as well. A deviation from his character in Love My Voice. Thankfully.  It will be interesting to see what project he'll pick up after the filming of Under the Skin 2.

 atmospheres:

I did expect that they would hitch their otherwise fairly average (to me, at least) idol drama cart to his viral character and performance and exploit him and his character as much as possible while screwing him over in the actual show (sorry for my language), but it's still annoying and disappointing.

I think as far as idol romance drama goes, LYF is above average in terms of production quality with some excellent performances from ZY, YWY and TJC. Questionable special effects aside, the costuming, sets and lighting are all fairly well done. At the very least, it doesn't look cheap. Just compared it to say, The Story of Kuning Palace.

I'm not a huge fan of this story as a whole. I obviously loved the character of XL, but I have a lot of issues with some other aspects of the story. I'm very disappointed with what they are doing with this character. My love for XL aside, I feel like it's not keeping the integrity of the characters or the novel.  

The drama is a big win for TJC, though. Even some long-time Xiang Liu only fans like his performance despite hating the changes that they made to his character. He seems to have a positive experience with this character and drama. And he'll hopefully go on to more amazing works in the future :-)

 atmospheres:

TJC yes, Yang Zi up to a point (I think her acting as Wen Xiaoliu was very, very good, probably the best she's done since Battle of Changsha, her acting as Xiaoyao is not as strong imo and she does some of her best work in scenes with TJC because their acting is the most on a similar level of skill), I have issues with Zhang Wanyi's performance

I do agree that Yang Zi was stronger as WXL, once she became XY she reverted to some similar acting as her other performances. As for ZWY. This is the first thing that I saw him in so I have nothing to compare him to. Personally, I find him a bit too theatrical and "studied" - I tend to prefer a more naturalistic style of acting whereas he's slightly too "cerebral" for my taste. That said, given the subpar acting performances that are the norm out there in the idol romance drama realm, I'll take his performance any day.  I admit that I don't have a very high bar for idol romance drama. If you're not making me cringe, I'm good :-).

 atmospheres:

It's much better than Story of Kunning Palace, I agree, but that show is below average when it comes to production quality, cinematography, costuming, lighting, etc. For me, LYF -- the acting from some actors aside -- is about on par with other big budget S/S+ idol productions,

Story of Kuning Place was a complete eyesore. The performances were also average. The ML character had a lot of potential, unfortunately, ZLH didn't really make the most of it, IMO. It's entertaining, but it could have been so much better if they had actually cared about creating a quality production instead of a "fast food" product. The only way for me to watch an idol romance drama is to binge it - with the liberal use of the FF button. If I have to wait for new episodes to be released, I lose interest.  What are some S/S+ idol productions? I'm curious to know for future reference. 

 atmospheres:

The drama is definitely a big win for TJC -- the character of XL, the styling, the look, and his interpretation brought him a lot of new fans especially international ones.

Yup. The styling for XL and FFB were A+. A lot of it comes down to TJC - the way he carried himself in characters was very eye-catching. I did not plan on watching this drama, but seeing a short compilation of his scenes as XL in fighting mode got me suck in :-).