RisaBliss

Personally, I would recommend watching the drama first and then reading the novel. For me, because I didn't know the story or these characters, some stuff in the drama took me by surprise in the best way. Also, you don't see their inner monologue, which makes their non verbal acting pop (the leads and rest of the cast are so good at it). So going into the drama blind heightens the whole experience of watching it.

You can read the novel after, and it's better imo because now you can assign the faces from the drama to the characters and it completely enhances the novel experience. Since the novel has all the spicy scenes, experiencing the novel after the drama really cranks up the heat!

Same here

Bless whoever thought to put them in these shiny suits that reveal their chests likeeeee

I hope we keep getting blessed with more beautiful footage of the two of them until season 2
So happy that their concert is sold out, they deserve that and moreee

That teaser had me sweating with the way HCX was manhandling HYZ, please LORD WE NEED THAT MANHANDLING IN S2. Do we have a date for the concert yet?

Everytime I recover from the SCD hangover, you are right around the corner to help me relapse lmaooo, thankuu

I kinda agree only because I love it so much regardless of the limited budget. The cinematography and chemistry and acting is exquisite, but I got this feeling that they wanted to do a lot more - like, I could sense that everyone involved from cast to crew wanted to deliver more scenes and more episodes. Like from the acting to music to cinematography - all these aspects delivered, but they were restrained by the budget and funding and limited to 9 eps atleast until they understood how these 9 eps would be recieved by the fans and then they could go ahead and get approved for funding for more episodes. Atleast that's the impression I got watching it.

Personally, I feel like adding even just 3 more episodes and making it a standard 12 episodes season would have made it even better. Why? Cuz Chusan and Liuyi could have even more scenes; and not just scenes with them, I mean more funny and cute scenes with them together with Liuyi's friends as their romance develops. The whole Liuyi coming to terms with his feelings for Chusan could have been elaborated a little bit more instead of just two episodes between eps 7 and 9. 9 eps would have been fine if it was just Chu San and Liuyi, but when you include the Qinglong and Xiaoman drama, the second couple and the cop's plot with his dad and Fatty Seven and his crew, 9 eps really is too short. Ik they are gonna do a second season, but I meant I wanted the lead up to our main couple's mutual kiss in ep 9 to be even longer. Because Liuyi only started discovering his feelings for Chusan in ep 7 and Chusan was gone for most part of ep 9 and then bam!!, we get that kiss in ep9. Needed an extra two/three eps before ep 9.

The cinematography is perfect honestly and didn't get me any low budgetary feels and like @any_anka said above, blows higher budget productions out of the water sometimes. The music/audio mixing is good except for the dubbing which I got used to over time and is now a favorite of mine. My gripe is more about the quantity of the episodes leading to the final kiss and how that was affected by the budget. Everything else is minor.

Ikr, I love his pose here and also the juicy tiddies in the black tank top ✨ also Chu San's possessive hold over his man

Even the book cover characters look like the actors hahaha

https://bgm.tv/subject/431870

They look so hot and cute here even if it's a little yaoi-fied

Me and my friend were legit spell bound whenever he appeared on screen covered in blood. I swear blood just makes him look prettier instead of unkempt. I mean how?!

Yeah, you are right, might be promo for s2 or fan engagement content, can't tell from the posts alone until we get an official confirmation. Hope the show continues to generate interest and gains more fans in the meantime

And let's not forget re-reading the novel lmao!

I'd like your opinion on this- I see the actors are pretty active on social media, like posting pics and being booked for magazine shoots and concerts ...does this point to them raising funding/maintain interest for the second season? Like there was one edit that He Changxi posted with He Yanzhao which felt very season 2 reminiscent (like dominant Chu San energy, he's holding He YanZhao's face and all).

I've been re-watching with some close friends and my mom to cope lmao. I think I've prolly watched it like 6 times atp I've lost count!

Their new ep together sounds so good (4 songs,), you can find it here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseBL/s/U4gyJTSAlS

How has it been five years? I remember that rooftop kiss like it was just yesterday...story has a simple straightforward plot, but everyone involved in this show delivered everything and more in spades and so beautifully. The slow burn yearning and the transition to lovers was incredibly well done. Five years in and although we keep getting so many BLs year after year, but I have yet to find a BL with this level of easy chemistry and natural acting. I even have the Bad Buddy merch and boxset. Till date, the only purchases that I have made for a drama like ever lol

Good acting and synergy between the love interests in BL is SO important to me. I hate it when the cinematography, music, the set design is all top notch but the acting it so stiff. I can forgive low budget anything as long as the acting and the chemistry is on point and the story supports that. Can't believe how SO many BLs with actors suffer from stiffness, it's crazy. The best contender to me for Bad Buddy has got to be Sammy's Children's Day when it comes to chemistry and the slow burn romance (god I miss SCD and it's only been over a month since that aired). Maybbbe the main couple in Kiseki Dear To Me (altho the plot does get crazy for that towards the end, I like to close my eyes and ignore that part. Also the On1y One (still heartbroken over that one not getting a second season ever).

No wonder, MDL totally bamboozled me!

LOL yep that's what prolly happened
I was heartbroken when I first saw that there were only 9 eps (i started the series thinking it was gonna have the typical 12 ep length)

Yess, wasn't there like a rumor floating around that there would be 12 eps if season 2 drops (maybe that's is the mandela effect, don't take my word for it)

I found this show after watching TMS as well and was prepared to drop it because I was still in the TMS withdrawal phase and had resigned myself to not finding anything else interesting. But then the show took my by the throat and I decided to read the novel after ep 7 or so because I really couldn't hold my curiosity back anymore haha. I discovered the Wattpad link, and then the futilescans link afterwards.

I remember seeing your comments in futilescans chaps after I would finish some haha, the translators def would appreciate your comments because they were so nice. Them uploading 7 or 8 chaps per day is crazy fast, guess they saw the series brought in lots of new curious readers and they really wanted to help out the fans.

Really appreciate them for the work they put in. Also, I've noticed that they have reedited some chapters, so excited to reread them once they are done. Also, they said they are translating the author's other work, so I am definitely waiting for that to get translated as well. I believe that one has like 40 chaps and they have translated 19 so far. It's called Ant's Cry, so do check that out if you wanna read another She Xie Dian Dian novel.

Oh nice, yeah def give WOH a go if you have the time. It's a little slow in the first ep, but things pick up quick towards the end of it (that's when the two leads meet). Make sure you watch AvenueX's videos on the lip reading and hidden details in WOH on youtube when you are done w the show. She breaks it all down in her videos. Also the Word of Honor subreddit for deleted scenes and other stuff.

So basically, you know how most CDramas are dubbed by dubbing artists separately? So Chinese fans noticed the actor's mouth movements didn't match with what was being said. So what the actors said were 10x gayer and they just changed the dialogue in the dubbing to get the script past the censorship. But the crew made it so that the camera shows the mouth movements so fans can lip read the gay stuff that was actually said. It's wild.

Imagine if we had 5 more eps at this point in addition to the 9 we got...yes I am being delulu