lilmeh

I loved HYQ's casting - never watched him before and was kind of taken aback by how not handsome he turned out but that's realism. People get old, become ugly 😅

It's in canto on youku

Finished it in canto - one of the better made honkie shows in recent years but ONLY because it's not compatible with the TVB crowd.
It feels a lot more like a Youku short drama, but I like that it didnt go into unnecessary plots, since it's meant to be based on true stories (@final_flash, maybe you missed this detail).
Eliza does a great job - five lines of character development is probably where her acting limit still sits 😏.
Michael is, well Michael so dont expect anything different. He gets roughly 50 lines of character development.😁
It's also a good thing the rest of it is shallow enough, that no one from the writers to the directors bothered to add themes, or tried to be all lecturer about bad things that's happened.
They either pulled off the most impressive restraint on story writing in HK history, or they got lucky with the laziest bunch in a certain camp of tvb (which would also be commercially a genius move).
It's a good example of where bad HK production can still prosper into a well made show.
If you like sitting around campfires listening to interesting stories without judgement, dramatised documentary style like "cool story bro" vibes, this is probably for you. Everyone else can probably give it a skip.

Ep12

Looks like stamped TVB version

I've watched it in mando, read it in engsub, and now rewatching in canto mostly because im a francis fan. But honestly, no one is going to beat ZYL on being Wu Xie for a long long time.

Not really. It's surprisingly actually more a court thriller mostly because one of the sons of her friend is a downright OTT serial killer.. (not a spoiler since it's literally an EP1 premise for the whole series).
It's more a redemption story (practically for every character) than anything else, because she got the judgement wrong from day dot.

Tvb sold it in socials as just another charmaine sequel, but im pleasantly surprised!
It actually has a lot of heart, and really is a Benz show - his last, but definitely his best.

Watching the canto version now, and it's such a mess that I'm about to rate this super low despite knowing the mando version. Poor LQ didnt even get an intro scene - just turns up one day and they're friends out of thin air. 😅
Edit: now they even skipped a certain wolf scene, which was meant to be a key closure. What a mess.

It's called "Scare Out" officially in english... 😂

Rofl, i stopped watching after a few because your comment is exactly how I felt by that point. Parking til it's fully streamed.

In history, his wife is meant to be a key reason he became who he had to be - that's why she dominated the first half before becoming a flower vase.

It's a connotation error (context, not translation issue), but I did LOL when I saw it.

I finally finished it!
10/10, but I wouldnt blame you if you couldnt get through the first half.
It's just one of those Epics that will divide everyone.
I learnt so much, historical inaccuracies or not, there was a lot of history lessons - not just about what happened, but about what good people are. And that's what a good historical retelling should be - remind us what we should've learnt in the past, and what lessons we forgot.

I was wrong. I got past ep10 and now I'm 💯 in.
Everyone else bringing up past Cdramas are wrong too though - there is nothing like it, this is full sit-down-for-hours-marathon LOTR style show, if LOTR included every single snippet from the Silmarillion. The show is a beast, and you'll need some serious brain power to get through it - it's not family dinner fodder or youll end up trying to rewatch it five times like I did.

Im finally up to ep08 and it's getting better.. we can do it! 😅

Because even though we can tell it's high production, veteran cast, etc etc, it needs patience and a willingness to sit down and just trudge through it for almost 50hrs. Not a small feat.
Like a well made textbook but you fell asleep at chapter 3 because there was just too much to take in.
This is from someone who STUDIED ancient history and liked it.

Lol me too, fifth attempt at getting past 10 eps 🙌🏻

IMHO you missed most of the emotional journey if you think the ending has no impact on the audience - it's not about screentime, it's about what mattered to the characters.
It's like, you wont miss an Easter egg if it's just chocolate, but if someone promised it to you and you lost it, or they didnt give it to you, then that would piss you off wouldn't it?

It's in her character's personality - ultimately she paid the ultimate price though.