ANAM

Communism doesnt feel like that. It strips things of culture. If you are watching a costume drama, especially one that relies on historical culture (fictional or fantasy elements regardless), you are watching what came before communism. By default it is free of it.

I must say, you clearly do not understand what Communism has done to China. One of the things it did was strip China of its cultural heritage and identity. This is why historical costume dramas are actually the loophole of Chinese media censorship through which they can still show their cultural heritage. You can love China, its culture, its people, and still condemn Communism. I say this as someone who can smell Communism the moment it walks into a room. Call it conditioning from childhood from living in a postcommunist country.

it's meant to make them appear as if they ran away and died of suicide. which to me is so stupid and glorifies suicide. in the book, they got married, had a child (possibly two) and after several years he died of suicide and she went back to being a war reporter where she died.

Oh yes, netizens, the industry, it’s brutal. All of the arts are distorted because of this. I meant the craft itself.

This is only true for method acting which is truly detrimental. Using your own sadness to recreate sadness is dangerous to the psyche. Using acting techniques that are more about delivering the story and becoming the character are far safer and even completely emotionally safe. It also depends a lot on the director and their insistence of which approach the actor must take. As an actress myself and my sister is a director, I can confidently say there is an effective much more emotionally strong delivery technique of acting that doesn’t hurt the actor. I myself suffer from multiple psychiatric disorders and acted holocaust victims in plays which were repeated performances on tour and I felt nothing but peace and even joy afterwards for being able to truly deliver someone else’s story. My uncle was an actor based in Hollywood, retired, and he told me about the importance of separating my own experience from the character’s, but I also learned this in acting classes. I believe the industry, especially the idol industry is what made Zhao Lusi so exposed to a world without proper protection. But it’s not the actual craft. It’s the shit around it.

I don’t think I can ever watch that actress. She’s one of those unredeemable ones. I thought I couldn’t with many but they managed to completely sway me but I don’t think I can ever un-see her as the character she was.

Same. SAME. But he’s a phenomenal actor and perfect for this role and I’m surprised to say watch this anyway. You will enjoy his performance.