AlenaReva

Ep 36 is such a downer. Did they run out of budget?

I’m am a bit disappointed about how vanilla FL is in love.

It’s typical fan wars. Don’t pay much attention.

Look, I know what you mean, but there is a difference between saying that something is inspired by multiple sources and a single one. Your review is great BTW

Your review says that East Palace “takes obvious inspiration from Stranger Things.” It’s a very close accusation of plagiarism.

It’s not like Stranger Things invented dark dimensions. Maybe get cultured a bit? Stranger Things created Upside Down based on D&D’s Ethereal Plane, Silent Hill, and Lovecraft. Lovecraft was inspired by Machen and Blackwood works, and they took inspirations from gothic and shamanic traditions. Korean folklore has dark dimensions tales, and Japanese ura-sekai derives Buddhist underworlds.

Same! And military uniform for males!

I’m for once here to see ZLH and WCR in Republican-era outfits. All Republican-era stories are ridiculous, and CGI is CGI-ing. It’s not like they are competing with Chris Nolan.

Same. In the novel ML is screwed much more - he is mean, rude, chain smoker, and sleeps around a lot, they softened him, but kept everything else the same, and the dynamic stopped making sense. FL behavior towards a screw up who sabotages his own life fits well, but it’s strange towards reformed ML they created.

I mean, it’s within the genre, and actors play what they are given, but the episode of ML strangling FL left me deeply traumatized.

How do you compare dramatic writing with comedy? ADWAD is a comedy that makes fun of classic drama’s trope, and ends up being a writer’s nightmare.
TPOB is a romantic tragedy, even though it gave me ick when ML strangled FL, that strangulation was well written into a narrative, so no notes.
It’s very weird to compare them simply based on ML. It’s like comparing writing of Brave Heart with What women want because of Mel Gibson.

It’s good to see Bao Shang En advancing to more complex role. She did ok in Fake it till you make it, but her character was awful, so it was hard to say if it was her or writing issue.
In Youthful Glory she starred against Song Wei Long and wasn’t matching his skills.
I just started watching NES and hope she got better.

It’s on IQIYU

Good for you. I need a closure. :)

I think 28-18 is fine, but I suspect that due to her age there won’t be many skin-ship and romance will mostly be gazes and talk

I watched them now. It seems like Xiao Changqing just wasn’t smart enough to predict and prevent it, he also held her in a golden cage instead of sharing his thoughts. It was not a true partnership, he wanted to own her and make her happy the way he saw fit.

Exactly, they had rough life experience together and they didn’t really talk about how painful it was.
Both come across very emotionally unavailable, it’d never work in real life.

Be angry at writers. I’m sure both ML and FL can’t believe this plot

Chinese culture is enormous on children being filial to their parents. Part of it is ancient tradition, another part is low level of safety net for elderly, government want people to care for elderly parents.

Same feeling. I can’t root for them as much as I love both lead actors. Their relationship development stuck in loops - he is trying to be a savior, she is trying to provoke emotions out of him, it’s not healthy.