Eleison

But Koreans (even Western cultures) do that to the Bible ALL the time, too. No "sacred text" or religion is "safe" in the hands of filmmakers. As consumers, we have to know that going into watching it. Koreans even butcher Buddhism in dramas which is what Koreans themselves ascribed to historically. They're certainly not going to do justice to ANOTHER culture's religious tradition if they can't even get their own straight.

And the entertainment industry doesn't believe in sacred texts that need to be treated with respect simply because a lot of people somewhere believe they're true.

Ideally, people should just choose not to watch it once it gets offensive. Discerning viewers would just turn it off, express their views rationally about why they disliked it/rated it low, and move on.

His eyebrows did some pretty impressive work in this drama. 😉😅

I did really like the teamwork in Reset. It was a bit sad that the ML didn't have a "buddy"; in this to face the fatigue and discouragement, and someone to process with. I feel like it might have helped raise the stakes and provide more emotional investment in the story if he had, but, that said, I am still really liking this. It's different than Reset, and that's fine. The only resemblance is that they have the same actor and that they have a time loop premise.

It certainly better than whoever is voicing Maggie. 😅 That said, the language switching between Mandarin and Cantonese is impressive. They're technically different languages, right?

Yes, entertainment loves to to distort and mock religions. It's like the M.O. of any entertainment industry. 😅

Kdramas are not going to portray a fantasy version of real religion correctly. The Kdramas that botch my religion to the point of frustration, I just avoid, haha.

Also, this writer is generally not my favorite, but she is famous for some of Kdramaland's most popular dramas of all time as well as some pretty epic flops. She goes big or goes home. 😅 At the very least, she makes waves, even with her flops. 😉

It just seems strange that he doesn't have other pawns to use; if he was a brilliant mastermind he'd have more of a plan than just using rookie politicians like HRF and the Chu Zhao to accomplish his machinations.

It bothers me sometimes, but I've gotten used to it, but some of the costume dramas are totally worth it, and VERY good (this (I'm about halfway) and Reset are also a great watch). I have to be picky with Cdramas because some are really not my cup of tea, genre-wise, and content-wise--a lot of the modern romantic ones are kind of problematic to me.

One of my biggest gripes in this so far is Maggie's scenes. They are so distracting because her English is dreadful (I think I need subtitles for her English-speaking parts), and then when she speaks Mandarin (magically--why was she talking to An Lan in poor English, then? 😅), it's so obviously dubbed (because the actress is Thai). 😅

I think the ML dubs his own roles, as I recognize his voice (he's one of my Cdrama faves). I think his and some of the other characters may not be dubbed, or, if they are, they're dubbing their own parts.

The soundtrack was a little different; sometimes I find it a bit distracting, and the Cantonese is taking some getting used to. It actually sounds so different than Mandarin, more different than I expected.

I feel that watching Cdramas most of the time. It's usually so obvious when they're dubbed, since their visuals synced with sound are usually not that great. I just have to look past it... 😅

I am on Episode 32 after getting back into this after a break.

But I feel like Xu Xing Fu using ACTUAL Hei Ru Fei to help him build and plot makes no sense. Cause He Ru Fei is not good at ANYTHING. He's overly emotional, and mucks up anything he handles, so why would a so-called brilliant mastermind like Xu Xing Fu pursue him while he was in hiding, plot with him, and appear to have no one else to leverage and work with to accomplish his goals in the court? It just feels overly simplistic after watching sophisticated court wrangling and schemes/machinations as shown in other dramas like Joy Of Life or Nirvana In Fire (though I guess comparing this drama to those dramas is already a bad idea. 😅 Different leagues, so... difficult to compare).

I've wondered that, too! In this and Guardians of the Dafeng.

Oh, really? Good to know.

What kind of sex, and how much?

I love BJT's acting and would love to see this, but Viki hasn't released it yet in the U.S. 😔

Yes, but not a single Cdrama I've seen has shown a historically accurate version of China in any believable way, which is why I asked how much it leaned "realistic" vs. typical fantasy costume drama "set" in a "historical" time period.

I was sad to see that, too, but It's still kind of insane that it has maintained a 9.3 after almost a hundred thousand watchers. That continues to be completely unprecedented on MDL.

There is a bonus episode that was released (but it can only be found on random sites, not sure where), that's short (like 5-10 minutes), and so a fellow watcher recommended I stop the last episode (40) halfway through, then she suggested I just skip from there to the bonus episode for the ending; so I could skip the weird, random ending with the battle and good characters dying at the end of 40. It was a perfect watch that way, no frustrations, or "what the heck is going on?" moments. 😉

Yes, he's very talented. Definitely one of the better K-actors, in my opinion. But right after this drama he got caught up in a scandal that halted his career until they snuck him into When Life Gives You Tangerines recently. I think he might be back on track now, maybe?

He's also great in Start Up; that was his breakout role. The screenwriter for it is my all-time favorite, but it was a mistake casting him as the 2ML and Nam Joo Hyuk as 1ML since Nam Joo Hyuk's range is not as good. People were in an uproar over the FL ending up with Nam Joo Hyuk's character over Kim Seon Ho's (but he was the 2ML, so they should have just stopped the drama if they couldn't envision the leads together; there was no way in Kdramaland it wasn't gonna end that way 😅).

Yes, I enjoyed it more the second time around than on my first watch!