Lady Musashi

After 12 episodes, I am liking the lead actress, soundtrack and how some fight scenes/imagined fights, techniques are filmed. Yibo is cute. On the other hand, it's very cheap and slow and some characters defy every logic even for wuxia. Li Sheng is one of them. How many ways you can say moron? I hope it picks up or it will be bye-bye soon.

I am liking the drama so far (Ep 35 at the moment) in spite of glaring flaws due to the obvious cuts. You can see the holes in the narrative and occasionally cuts impeded the characterization as well. Censorship sucks, yes, but I consider what we got- a coherent narrative - a small miracle. The leading trio is fantastic, but really all the actors are great. The soundtrack is fantastic. It could have been a masterpiece, but I will settle for this. I will see how it develops over the next 20+ episodes.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpghCOjR4QqrKjwKw-jkbWAbH6g08q1SR

Yes, thank you, I was so impressed by him. He's truly brilliant. Plus, he was so cute and sad, my heart broke for him.

Does anyone know what is the name of the boy in stripped shirt from Lay's team? I still have to catch up with English subs, so I don't know. I was really sad that he got eliminated and I'd like to follow his career in the future.

Thank you. I should have know that this was the best place to find the episode. :)

Xiao Bai getting sister-zoned in Episode 3 = legendary. :D

And so it begins. Lets hope we get back the Iron Triangle sooner rather than later.

Season 2 Trailer: https://m.weibo.cn/status/4538997734904531?

Junjie (Xiao Ge) said during the livestream that he thinks season 2 will air in September, mid-September to be more precise. Let's hope he is right.

I was talking more about C-drama and female roles in general.

Until creators start seeing it as a serious problem, things will remain the same. And we have to take into account cultural differences. Even without political control, Chinese value harmony above all, rocking the boat just isn't in their nature. I am just frustrated that female characters are almost always subpar if they are not the leads and even then chances are better for a good role if the actress is successful (like Zhao Lusi or Dilraba). Ah, well, we can always enjoy the view and talent that is Zhu Yilong. :)

I have to agree with your assessment, though my enjoyment really plummeted in the second half of the season. Zhu Yilong cannot carry the drama on his own, others must show some charisma too. It's hard when the only major trait of the only other actor with significant screen time is being cute. That's not personality, that's Hello Kitty. But, I agree Xiao Bai was at least tolerable, other women were wasted and so was our time. Imagine what a writer who knows writing women could do with a single working mother with sick child or a disabled woman. Alas, it was not meant to be. I also think the show suffered from cutting 72 episodes to 66 to two seasons, the narration is broken, pacing too. Also, I heard (maybe even here) that the major part of Piaopiao/Pang Zi story was censored and so changed which is why dubbing doesn't match their lips. Still, I'll watch season 2. I want my Iron Triangle back.

Am I the only one suspicious of Bai Haotian? She's so conveniently helpful, but then not really. Cute as a button and pushy, devil in disguise?

I wasn't quick enough, but luckily @Awie gave you the answer. :)

If I have one major complaint about this drama (which I love dearly anyway), it's uneven pacing and I think it might be to a larger degree a consequence of dividing the story in 'two seasons'. The 'draggy' parts of the story might not be that in a context of 66 episodes, but within 32 I often feel 'why are they spending so much time on this?'. Ah, well, it can't be helped.

On the other hand, we have such pearls like Pang Zi saying his dream was to become female pilot and Wu Xie answering something like 'It's good to have ambitions', so never mind the pacing.

In 2021. P'New confirmed it on Twitter.

@Kochase I agree with Bai Youning's potential. The relationship with her father and with her colleagues should have been mined more. And only during the wedding we saw that she has other friends besides Lu Yao and Chusheng. Also, you are not wrong about historical inaccuracy. I don't know what it is in a huge number of Asian dramas, they just can't get the female characters right, especially when they want them to seem strong and independent.

I wholeheartedly agree on two cute mail leads. A spoon of sugar makes medicine go down as they say. ^^

There were several women in the drama and all were better written than BYN (except the sister, she was equally two-dimensional). But all of them (sister too) were more likable than BYN, including the murderers. Whataboutism is a poor argument in defending a character, almost as poor as involving my gender. As a woman, but most importantly AS A PERSON, I am not obliged to like any character including female characters. The only thing her character stood in the way of was not bromance (as bromance existed on screen and in the script anyway) but better drama.

I dislike Bai Youning's character because she is poorly written, like a mannequin with tacked-on characteristics . I noticed that this is a trend in many Asian dramas, not just Chinese, where independent and strong equates with loud and rude. Supposedly strong, independent character who despises her father's background has no problems relying on the said background when she needs it. She is hypocritical, brash, spoiled and violent. I was going to give her benefit of the doubt, but then she faked her own abduction and made several cases more complicated they they should have been. The writers attempted to give her some depth in the last several episodes, but too little too late. The romance developed in the last few episodes was the last straw. I wish bromance/friendship was where the writers stopped. I still liked the drama, but it could have been exceptional with better character development of BYN or without her.