phoenixfrost

I'm so glad to find a kindred spirit in you regarding this drama. I agree with everything you've said, especially about retaining their personalities as being more important than the POV when adapting the novel to drama. XJX's understanding of and respect for SM's ability and desire to be treated as equal, not a damsel in distress, is one of the things I so love about him. The most extraordinary thing I've read that showed a man's love and respect for his wife is when XJX declined all advise to get a new wife and arranged for a comatose SM to attend his coronation. That made him #1 in my list of favorite cdrama MLs.

I'm looking forward to how the scriptwriter would change unsavory portions to make them more palatable. Would the scriptwriter keep the pregnancy subplot to force Prince Yu's hand or use another way to deal with him? With so many more interesting surprises to look forward to with the adaptation, change of POV is the least of my worries.

Oh, I forgot that what happened to the Qin Princess was instigated by XJX, not SM. Time to continue re-reading the novel 😃 I had started my 2nd read of it but stopped when it seemed like Didi was not going to take the project on.

In another thread, somebody pointed out that the more accurate translation of the Chinese drama title, 将门独后, is "Only Daughter Of a General Family". I've actually seen this on Twitter posts but Tencent Video has not officially released an English title yet.

Haha, the "malicious" word in the title is well-deserved. Shen Miao 's viciousness is truly epic. It would be great if the scriptwriter can rewrite the entire Wolong incident such that Shen Miao doesn't sound like Ghislaine Maxwell's mentor but keep the gist, i.e. foil the wicked plans of her relatives and the prince.

Exactly! I like what she did with Chang Zai Qing. Same with Jing Chuchu. Her revenge against the Qin Princess was somewhat shocking too, though several notches below the shock level of Wolong temple.

There's a summary of the suppression attack launched against this movie in the Recent Discussions section:
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/767111-yu-zhou-sheng-cun-zhi-nan/148490-the-atrocious-supression-of-per-aspera-ad-astra-by-the-chinese-movie-industry

Any comments are welcome.

I think WHD was referring to the roadshows. The movie is still ongoing and despite the screening suppression, it just reached the 90M milestone as announced in this link:
https://x.com/DylanWangGlobal/status/2027493899993026577

I don't want her passion for justice to be toned down. I think that's a major reason XJX fell for her, not to mention her intelligence, deeply analytical mind and ability to carry out well-thought-out plans. These traits need to be carried over to the drama. Her viciousness needs some toning down though. What happened at Wolong Temple is just too barbaric.

I've seen "Only Daughter Of a General Family" being used on Twitter. So it seems to be the right translation.

Oh, ok, I used the MSN translator. Google translator translates it to "The only one left behind". But I defer to those who know Chinese.

The Chinese title of this drama, MSN-translated to "The Last of a Distinguished Family", is actually brilliant. In Google, it translates to "The only one left behind". It can apply to both Xie Jing Xing and Shen Miao since they're both the last of their distinguished families. I wonder why Tencent Video is not yet using the tag #TheLastOfADistinguishedFamily on Twitter/X.

I think making the drama male-centric would be too large a swing from the novel. Neutral would be a good compromise, with more of the ML's background story fleshed out. I agree the writer should not make the FL a weak damsel in distress. The personalities of the ML and FL should be kept as they are in the novel, except for the FL's viciousness that I hope would be toned down.

You're right. I guess that's the reason the novel title has "malicious empress". The Chinese drama title translates to "The last of a distinguished family". It doesn't contain the word "malicious", probably because they need to tone the violence down.

Oh yes, in 2nd life, after he and sm got married. It was kind of funny and wasn't mentioned that much, probably 2 or 3 occasions

He loved her in both lives. He fought the feeling in both lives too. In SM's first life, PL did things that greatly harmed and hurt her and her children because he was trying to suppress his feelings. But he made up for his villainy by doing something extraordinary.

Since Shen Miao is draping a cloak over her cousin, it does seem they toned it down. However, the story still needs to change such that what happened is not maneuvered by her, otherwise, her culpability is the same, i.e. she is still vicious.

Exactly what I was thinking while reading that part - “this would never pass censorship”

ikr? That scene, especially, is too vicious and shocking. Thus, I’m rather bemused at the hullabaloo surrounding the possible change in POV from female-centric because with parts of the story needing to be changed to not make this XXX-rated, I doubt a change in POV to neutral would register a blip in the consciousness of novel readers watching the drama.

I've been saying I just want the story intact. I don't care whether it's female-centric or not. But let me recant a bit. There's a part of the story that I hope would be changed - when a girl is being violated, I hope the scene would be changed such that Shen Miao and Xie Jing Xing had already left by then. Also, I hope the scriptwriter closes the loophole about the search XJX is conducting. I don't remember what the item he is searching for is. Or did I miss the reveal?