Fan Fiction Thread for Lost You Forever

 ZYHLJ:

Haha, sorry, I was blind and mistook Du Chun for Sun Chun! I was thinking, why is there no one looks familiar in this video except Huang Xiaoming? Is it because my English is not good enough and I misunderstood liddi...

LOL It's an understandable mistake, since their names are so similar! You didn't know anyone in the video apart from Huang Xiaoming? Have you never watched 刘昊然 Liu Haoran's works - 九州缥缈录，妖猫传，唐人街探案 etc? This was my first and favourite drama of Sun Chun's. I only realised recently that he played Yang Zi's father in the 2011 drama 幸福来敲门. 

 ZYHLJ:

I also like Zhou Shen very much! The 梅香如故 he sang is so beautiful, and the 大鱼 with Guo Qin is so classic, the beauty touches your soul!

Yes! He sang two versions of 梅香如故 - a solo, and a duet with Mao Buyi. Both are so beautiful, but I personally prefer the duet because their voices complement each other so well and bring an added texture to the song. 大鱼 was his definitive song and he has done many variations of it over the years but I personally love his duet with Guo Qin during the 中国新声音 competition best - so achingly breathtaking. I love his 荒城渡 from The Untamed, and his recent duet with 宋亚轩 singing Once Promised's theme song 桃花诺 tempts me to try and watch the drama again, because it is so beautiful. Speaking of 宋亚轩, I love TJC and his duet of 孤勇者 too, and my only complaint was that it was too short.

 ZYHLJ:

You've watched The Chinese Restaurant, then have you watched the episodes where Tan is in it? In season five.

I did follow the episodes he was in. He was a little unsure of himself when he first arrived and a little intimidated by Ning Jing, but I love how he threw himself into the tasks at hand, and worked so hard. I doubt he would have any trouble attracting customers now LOL. That was the show where he and Zhou Ye first met too, which they would mention during LMLMV interviews. 

 ZYHLJ:

Have you read the original novel of "Winner is King"? I've read that novel, it's very good. The author is one of the best Danmei writers in China, and Gu Yun is the most attractive character to me in all her novels I have read. Playing him is no less difficult than playing Xiang Liu. If Tan can successfully play him as well, then he will really be a god in the acting world...

No I haven't. It's that good? Will give it a try one day - I have so many books collecting dust on the shelf because I keep buying but haven't read them yet! Currently I am still in my 长相思 audiobook phase, which my daughter is also listening together with me. 

 ZYHLJ:

I'm very confident in the remake of "Once Promised."

It occurred to me that apart from Scarlet Heart:Ryeo, the upcoming Thai remake of 步步惊心 and English series of 散落星河的记忆 Memories Scattered Across the Galaxy, Tong Hua's works have not been adapted outside of China. Was it a conscious decision on Tong Hua's part, or it had not garnered sufficient interest internationally despite the popularity of her novels? Then again, I am always concerned about adaptations butchering the source material, and her historical novels, particularly fantasy ones, would be extremely challenging to adapt, especially in a different language. 

 ZYHLJ:

I read the original text again and searched for the covers of different versions of LYF. Now I think that the author's meaning should be that the phrase 长相思 itself has an ancient and simple charm. Because "长相思" itself is a famous "Cipai Name(词牌名)" in ancient China (I didn't think about this before!?), there are many excellent Ci's name start with it. 

That's an interesting take that I never considered - thank you for sharing it! In other words, it had nothing to do with what the title looked like, or even how the lighting shone on the cover and the title, but an association of the words to 词牌名 which automatically evokes an air of ancient simplicity and mystery. It certainly sounds far more plausible than having Nian Liu thinking that a 2013 book is ancient.

 Kokuto:

Yes, that's the impression I got also.  Like the light highlighted or made the book and the words stand out and attract her attention, and perhaps made her feel the words were mysterious and ancient.

 Kokuto:

I don't know.  When I'm scanning book spines, if I see an old script being used, it tells me the book might be historical or fantasy, i.e. something that catches my interest.

I see your point i.e. it is not so much that she thinks the book is ancient, but that the font or calligraphy used creates an association to historical or fantasy stories.  From @ZYHLJ's theory, it looks like both our impressions are off the mark though... 

@nathsketch

To be honest, I think Deng Wei's acting skills are not good enough, but not very bad either, just average. I think one of the most important reasons why he is so famous is that he looks good. Many people say that he looks like Wu Yifan, who was once very popular in China. In short, his appearance is the type that the public likes. In China, an actor's appearance is a very important factor to determine whether he can get a role in a romantic drama, especially in costume romance dramas where visual effects are very important. It’s not that Chinese people judge people by their appearance, but in the words of one netizen, “Why do I especially take time to watch romantic dramas to see ordinary people fall in love? Because I can’t see it in real life?”

For fans, they would say whatever is beneficial to the star. So, when he had landed a first male lead role, they would immediately start bragging about it. But looking back at Deng Wei's previous history of taking roles, it's easy to see that he doesn't particularly care about whether he can play the first male lead. I think he is more concerned about whether the role can bring him fans and popularity.

@liddi

I know 刘昊然! He's a good (and handsome) actor. Also, I really like 妖猫传! This movie received a ton of criticism upon its release, but interestingly, everyone I know loved it, and many actors and even director have publicly said they loved it, so I have to wonder what's behind that =_=

The original novel of "Winner is King" is called 杀破狼. It was great and created a character that I will never forget, and even the third male role in it is super super cute. All the descriptions of war in the novel are immersive. But it’s quite long, so if you don’t have time, watch the drama first. What I want to say is that the character Gu Yun is very special, very charming, and very popular. Playing him is really a big challenge!

Regarding the issue of adapting Tonghua’s works, I’m actually not very clear about it. In fact, I didn't know that her works had been translated into English and Vietnamese before. I thought her readers were limited to Mandarin speakers. If her work is adapted by a Western country, I think it would require a lot of changes (can you imagine what A Song of Ice and Fire filmed by the Chinese would look like?), but I think if it is adapted into animation, maybe it will be as successful as "Mulan". If her work were adapted in countries such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia, only a few changes would be needed, and it might be interesting!

Actually I think the author's meaning is probably that the encounter between the orange light (like candlelight) and the ancient Cipai exudes a 古朴的 atmosphere. This scene is very conceivable. What do you think?

 liddi:

Have you tried listening to dubbed versions of Lost You Forever? I heard snippets of the dialogue in Cantonese, but feel that the voices and delivery do not quite live up to the standard of the original.

I stumbled on a Russian FMV / clip and the voices were dubbed.  They were HORRIBLE.  Completely threw me out of the scene.

 liddi:

Oh now you've gotten me intrigued.  Can you please share the link to it?

Don't say I didn't warn you. ;p

https://youtube.com/shorts/ypEhcMgy-68?si=BZbR-M7AbXlZgH-A

https://youtu.be/KUbFmAbqQcA?si=p0hLt1bmc6qkpu0T

 liddi:

Hmm... it is certainly different. Both clips are by different uploaders. Am I imagining things or do the voices in both clips sound the same? If so, are these fan-dubbed, or actual official dubs of the drama? 

I know that the Philippines do dubs of kdramas - not sure whether LYF is popular enough there to warrant a dubbed broadcast.

This is the Cantonese dub:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ma4y1B7YB

Apparently there is an official Thai dub too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F8b5nLnv_Q

The Thai video is region protected.  But the Cantonese one at least tried to get something similar, though they failed with Tan Jian Ci's voice -- which is ironic, because he speaks Cantonese, and they could have gotten him to do the dub, if they were willing to pay for it.  The Russian one was just jarring.

I don't know if they are official or not, but they do sound the same to me also.  I don't what the situation is with the Chinese platforms and Russia.  This was the first time I've seen Russian videos on Chinese dramas.

 Kokuto:

The Thai video is region protected.  But the Cantonese one at least tried to get something similar, though they failed with Tan Jian Ci's voice -- which is ironic, because he speaks Cantonese, and they could have gotten him to do the dub, if they were willing to pay for it.  

That's a shame. I don't think you missed much though - Thai Xiang Liu takes me right out of the scene as well, just like Cantonese Xiang Liu is so not him. You have a good point about TJC being Cantonese and knowing the dialect. If only they had gotten him, it would have made a great deal of difference. 

 Kokuto:

The Russian one was just jarring.

I don't know if they are official or not, but they do sound the same to me also.  I don't what the situation is with the Chinese platforms and Russia.  This was the first time I've seen Russian videos on Chinese dramas.

You're right. That was so totally unexpected, to see a Russian dub in a Chinese drama, particularly a fantasy one. I do see some other dubbed historical / fantasy Cdramas by the uploaders including a very recent one Hard to Find. It either means Cdramas are regularly dubbed officially, or the fans are especially passionate!