Eleison

Because it's a drama, friend. These sorts of questions are not asked. 😅

The leads are doing a great job (both HIY and HRI are doing well; the nitpicks against HIY feel unnecessary). Curious to see how they'll extend the story for 12 episodes since the leads seem to be patching things up fairly quickly. We'll see!

That said, I do think BSC is doing a very good job. I deeply disliked Inspector Koo, but if I had a favorite character, it'd have to be his role of Santa. And here, he's doing well with the nuance and building tension with the 2FL, and I'm really liking him. (He also bulked up? He looks less dweeby/twiggy and more heartthrob now, which I'm sure was intentional.😅).

They must also be driven by ghosts because they never seem to be held accountable for killing or almost killing people!

This trope is up there with some of the most nonsensical dramaland tropes, like nosebleeds to indicate someone is overworked (or dying), spitting blood (when shot or in a fist fight), and feeling a woman's pulse to see if she's pregnant. 😅

The White Truck Of Doom is unique to Kdramaland, though. Haven't seen it appear in Cdramas. (I feel like people not dying falling off of cliffs is the costume Cdrama trope equivalent of the White Truck Of Doom in Kdramas 😅).

Could it have to do with rejecting her daughter, Ha Na, for his film? 🤷‍♀️

Haha, that's fair, but I meant similar in that the ML dies.

I never saw The Story Of Pearl Girl, but I know how it ended. It seems this drama will have a similar ending for the ML?

Haha, I see! What's a 10 for you, then?

I had fun reading your review, by the way! You write thoughtfully and skillfully.

Oh, thank you! I'd love that.

So, what kept it from getting above an 8? That rating seems a bit low for such a glowing review.

Ouch, what a brutal dis 😬😅

Glad I could be of help!

This is a super interesting perspective. Traveling more has forced me to consider other viewpoints than the ones I'm used to hearing, so I've been enjoying getting other angles on things.

I don't have enough pieces to get a full picture of China (still so much to learn), but I have had a growing desire to visit there someday and more of East Asia in general (Hong Kong and Singapore are pretty high on the list at the moment), so anyway, thank you for taking the time to share.

Lol, thanks for the update!

Getting more insight on why you think the CPC is doing a terrific job sounds like a fascinating convo, but one I probably shouldn't explore here/now.

Oh yes, I don't mind the anachronisms. At least not the ones that (in my opinion) improve on the values held in the past and make the story more palatable for modern audiences. Dramas are for entertainment, first and foremost!

Got it, I see. I had heard that, but don't always trust Americans to give me completely accurate information about China, as there is obviously a lot of bias against their government over here. The way I feel about China can be summed up by Lizzie Bennet when she describes Darcy, "I hear such different accounts of you as to puzzle me exceedingly."

I see what you mean about line delivery and such for people who don't know the language (we can't catch the nuance and subtlety, pronunciation, diction, etc.). But I do appreciate your reviews/insights on them, even if I don't always agree with everything in them. And your understanding of the language, culture and customs is always extremely helpful and appreciated! For instance, to know which dramas have better court politics than others is really fascinating. I am largely bombarded by how fantastical and anachronistic everything feels in costume dramas, so it's nice to know when some of it is actually somewhat realistic/remotely historical.

Well, I finally finished this after dropping it at Episode 15 months ago. I was watching HMH in Key To The Phoenix Heart and wanted to see him in something else since I had vaguely remembered liking him in this, so I picked it up again, and then ended up finishing.

I was just fed up with the characters and story by Episode 15 (I was probably taking it too seriously); everyone was so confusing (their motivations), and all the powers/cultivation speak I could not follow for the life of me; I was also struggling to root for the characters cause they're all weirdos. Turns out I needed to make it to Episode 16 to see more of the heart behind the characters (and Chulan finally showed who he really was, which was nice), and to see more of the characters' camaraderie, which allowed me to finally make it to the end. Things started to payoff at that point, and what a relief.

I still don't know what most of the cultivation lingo and voice overs were talking about most of the time, have no idea what any of the powers are, all the stuff about qi... yeah, I was lost pretty much the whole time, but once I embraced that I wouldn't understand 80% of it, I enjoyed it a bit more.

Don't know what happened at the end, either, even though it was a cool climax. Though, I was kind of ticked that they managed to give NO CLOSURE on any of the secrets propelling the plot forward for the entire drama (as far as I could tell, but I also admitted I understood very little 😅): Tian's secret, what happened at the Jiashan Calamity (or what caused it), how the Eight Supremes were involved, and anything about Feng Bao Bao's past and what exactly makes her so different from everyone else--nothing was revealed. Indeed, quite frustrating.

But I enjoyed seeing Chulan become heroic, and the camaraderie between the friends. Just took me a while to get past the weird that is this drama (and the confusing).

Definitely the wackiest, weirdest Cdrama I've ever seen, but cool visually, for sure!

Interesting! Why aren't you comfortable posting on Chinese sites (unless you're not comfortable sharing, which is fine. 👍 I just got back from a trip to India to visit a friend who's from there originally but lives in the U.S. now, and it was a fascinating trip, and while it was definitely a lot to take in, I had a great time. Learned so much! I love learning about people's experiences in other countries, so I applogize if I sound nosy 😅).

There does seem to be quite the range of age and country/nationality on MDL, from what I've observed (despite being a primarily English-speaking site). My impression of Douban from the way people talk about it here is that it's got slightly harsher/lower ratings for things than MDL?

Ah, you made it to 5! Will you keep going?

He's deeply anachronistic, but I love MLs like this, so, no complaints from me! 😉

Does it feel super different being on Chinese sites vs. here? I'm just curious. I'm so jealous of bilingual (or multilingual) people. 😅

I've gotten to the point with Korean where I can have a sense for what was said or happened in certain scenes (it depends on what they're talking about/saying) without knowing what the exact words/vocabulary means (and now I can sometimes tell when the subtitles are wrong; I can definitely hear the non-Seoul accents now, too). This has started to happen a bit more with Mandarin, but I find Mandarin so much harder than Korean.

I must be dense as far as languages are concerned because I've seen so many dramas and still rely so heavily on subtitles. 😅😭