Frost_edelweiss

15 minutes until next episodes.

The cooking competition was fine. What's with the impatience : pace is brisk enough ! If you need quicker fixes, I suggest you turn to mini drama of the 5 minutes length variety.

As for Second Prince, attempted murder on a ruler is blatant treason. And the ruler is known for bloodbaths. Can't well see how the would-be emperor's assassin would escape the 1000 cuts 凌迟 execution for his deed. Even if he did not himself poison the emperor and if the emperor survives. Don't know if the torture will be as graphic as the one in One and Only, since young and sensitive eyes need to be spared. But no-one will mourn that villain prince as the (wronged) Junior Nanchen one was.

Yes, I thought this Dubai trip needed to be collected in the Chen Zheyuan Profile, so here :
-- https://mydramalist.com/discussions/an-ye-yu-li-ming/119875-profile-of-chen-zhe-yuan?pid=2762153&page=1#p2762153 (new Gifs and short presentation of the ad work, in Modeling section)
-- https://mydramalist.com/discussions/an-ye-yu-li-ming/119875-profile-of-chen-zhe-yuan?pid=2762187&page=1#p2762187 (new Gifs adding ice cream and Dubai exotic breakfast to the Food section)
-- https://mydramalist.com/discussions/an-ye-yu-li-ming/119875-profile-of-chen-zhe-yuan?pid=3029323&page=1#p3029323 (new Annex with text translation copy, pictures from the Wechat feature, and Gif excerpt from the vlog)

The Profile can be navigated using the Table of contents links in the beginning. -- Enjoy!
(and if pictures don't show, or some links don't work, you can warn me here, of course; I check them once in a while, but sometimes they are taken down so only the Gif keep the memory).

oh well, some say they can see those gif. Good for them.

I think you have no problem watching the ones I make or collect.

I made quite a few new ones (because the limit is 30' on giphy which I have been using successfully enough to trust it uploads on MDL for everyone), to add to the Chen Zheyuan profile, for the Dubai feature. I use eZgif to cut them and add texts or rearrange original material, btw.

I will make a new post so everyone can find the "new stuff" and benefit from admiring "our hero" and reading that feature, even without trawling through the avalanche of posts here and links... 🥰😍

Sorry, all are Invisible to me :( except the profile one with the dog
even when I tried "Reload image" or "open in other window" or "open link"...

Yes that's maybe how YZM will redeem himself from his past mistakes in handling matters with MCH.

yes, I got it that this won't be torrid romance 🤣🤣 🤣🤣 🤣🤣
The Mai family is one big bag of mismatched crayfish of various hues that ML would like to cook to his taste, perhaps. The Mai mother is relentlessly crabby 🦀🦀🦀🦀
Hairy crab is a delicacy in China, btw.

Yao never was entitled or deserving to get anything he wanted just because of bloodline or work abroad; his grandmother had every right in China to dispose of her property as she saw fit. She had found out he had come only to squeeze the Xing An Li hotel from her to hand it over, "streamlined" and "rid of obsolete personnel" to be handed over to the larger international group under which her grandson was just a pawn. So, she wanted to protect the people first, and grandson had to learn his lesson there ; Grandma had been grooming her "heart" granddaughter for the task so she had no qualm making it into title for Chenghuan. Giving the house to Yao was a test : if he tried to oust the Mai family, or even exchange inheritance, he would totally lose any trust from Chenghuan, because despite difficulties she would not back down, faced with challenges.

"He could have had it all, rolling in the deep", to paraphrase a famous song, but he "played it to the beat", almost losing all confidence from Chenghuan. She knew well that he had helped her before, but his last lie to her tainted everything he had done with the color of greedy dishonesty.

I finished watching in 2 sittings today and added a rather descriptive review. I like Edgar Poe's work enough to have gone reciting the Raven and toast him in a group at his grave in Baltimore, back in another century, when fellow Poe admirer Stephen King was not the legend he has become ! That was one of my most treasured World Fantasy convention going days. So yes, Ligeia, MS found in a bottle, all that, does ring an attractive bell.

The booking by Chen Zheyuan of a movie theater to support the airing (when he was busy with Gucci duties in Shenzhen) had eluded my radar then, but since I found the link in comments section here, I had to add it in one section of my Profile of CZY ; here is the link :
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/an-ye-yu-li-ming/119875-profile-of-chen-zhe-yuan?pid=2762209&page=1#p2762209
(that profile is housed under Discussions of upcoming Dark Night and Dawn series, only for convenience's sake. It is easier for me to add and modify in Discussions sections than it would be in a fixed Article...).

I had also done a mini profile for Tan Jianci in Discussions of LYLMV (because I and some others here among commenters, do "love his voice" lol ! ) ; that one is here : https://mydramalist.com/discussions/really-miss-you/121599-love-you-love-my-voice-playlist-and-more?pid=2904475&page=1#p2904475 (updated with same piece of news).

Since Zhang Jingyi is now also starring in delicious Blossoms in Adversity, I was toying with the temptation to add a mini profile for her in Discussions there, but it is a lot of work, and these days I'm busy with other stuff too. She is in my list of preferred actresses, of course.

Yes, that script : so bad it destroyed and destoried the show.

I agree the two leads were hot and often sweet. Will remember them (cutting off memory of the hot mess end scenes not really redeemed by the "happy end") if they play in other roles.

yep, stay for the hot kissing scene. And go with the nice dreams after, turning off the rest, good idea. You will at least leave with a positive impression of hot chemistry between the main leads who probably deserved a better story to act in :)
Off my hat, it's around 19-20, but this is one I will not re watch to check.

fell into a sewer and got mangled by the recycling machines?
(I am harsh, but this drama ended up tiring for me).

Although I liked the drama until ep.19-20 or so, and especially the very hot office kissing scene, I grew very disappointed and bored in the last third of the drama, when the conundrums took over with the SFL psycho step sister (daughter of ML's adoptive father) and the "best friend" of FL (step brother of SFL with same father, still wanting to possess FL when she had made clear she loved ML only). ML "CEO", who lacked acumen to see through the jealousy of his "secretary" cum "amnesic hidden sister", became increasingly boring, despite a few randomly thrown in kissing scenes, break ups and make ups. The over repeated "I can do everything for you" bgm song grew on my nerves, so I almost slammed computer shut. But being a completionist, I stayed to watch the drag and chore of last episodes. They are not worth purchasing into express package, btw; it was a tedium for me to stay until the "happy ending" with SFL standing in a field of flowers facing the ex hostile scion of the antagonist family, to accept his proposal! while a drone brought a white head veil to be plucked from the sky by ML to accompany his proposal, said drone operated by "best friend" who had taken over the role of CEO at ML's company, to push it into merging with the once hostile competitor. The unraveling of the unnecessarily convoluted knots of the story ended up devoid of any meaning, so, I can't leave a nice rating any longer and will cut it down to 6.5. (which is lenient all considered)

This drama, which was filmed last year, April 1 to May 28, 2023. had won attention to be in the top 10 web dramas previous week, and was still #5 in the top ten ratings for last week ending 2024.04.14. But I doubt it will get a high Douban rating, now. Relatively high ratings here on MDL are very lenient, in my opinion.

The ML Zhao Zhiwei and FL Lu Yangyang had good chemistry, and SML Brian Chang, looked good, that's all. I hope the leads will get better roles in the future.

It was filmed April 1 to May 28, 2023.

You are describing the surviving clan traditions. I think this is much more constrictive in South East Asia than in China proper, where many historical movements bashed some of this outlook, although yes, it does survive in part for the "very rich" and connected.

If it is just "common folk", 老百姓，it is somewhat easier, although not always. If the partner is eldest son even from working or middle class : he'd have to be assertive and set boundaries clearly to go about with personal choices, which is not necessarily unfilial.

What is more unusual is to keep the daughter so much "on the leash" when she is past 25.

Also that said daughter agreed complacently to such a situation, so we can say Chenghuan is indeed in part responsible for what happened. Sure, she could not demand independence when she was 9 years old as the mother shouted, but she could have, at 22, or 23, shortly after she started working and earning her keep, instead of keeping her baby room at home, forcing her brother to make do with a folding cot between a window and a curtain.

Sure, renting an apartment to live in, in Shanghai, is outrageously expensive, but it is not a valid excuse for a courageous person.

Zhang Jingyi has risen meteorically (as I foresaw since Fall In Love and Lighter and Princess).
Yang Zi (not Zhi) is top too, but a costume romance does not necessarily top a modern one. It just happens that the modern one is, this time, less easy to binge watch than the costume one for various reasons, not so sweet as say, The Oath of Love which overtook costume dramas in the race to #1 at the time it aired.
Both Xu Kai and Hu Yitian have fans and haters. Since I hate no one, I watch them all, with pleasure, even mentioned in TLoSL comments that I was moving on from zhaozhao to aoao for next watch (and from dear Lin Gengxin to Xu Kai who is maturing and seldom shy, lol).
But I agree that BIA (and TLoSL) are the most outstanding for a good time drama watching, at this moment.
I believe Best Choice Ever will rise in ranking, once interaction between Xu Kai and Yang Zi reaches something different from now, with more than budding chemistry at least. To me it is already a story that I am eager to watch unfold.

Right. I had taken note of Zeng Li who also did "difficult mother" roles (she can also play deliciously doting one) or surrogate mom like the Immortal leader of the Legend of Shen Li.
Now I will also remember the name of He Saifei.

I was wondering if the still wet sheet had slipped from her hand when she waved the drops away, to fall on the ground so they'd have to re-wash it ! lol

of course, this is drama and not at all slice-of-life.