Lu Ling Feng looks as old as Mother Li Tai Ping (...Grand Empress). Yang Xu Wen is 32, and Yue Li Na is 51. Yue…
There is no ageless makeup. It's called a CGI beauty filter. Apparently producers of TV dramas think you CANNOT stand a person's real appearance for 40 episodes/40 hrs long. So every drama that gets produced is first passed thru a beauty filter that makes people appear younger and more beautiful than they actually are.
Movies on the other hand don't mind showing ppl's real faces complete with wrinkles and blemishes. People tend to look older/closer to their real appearance in movies becoz it's only 2hrs long so the producer don't care to put it thru a CGI beauty filter at all.
I'm curious about Miss Mo. Since she is mortal and couldnt be with Han Li, will she married later or reincarnated…
I see this a lot. Too many ppl don't know most C-ent companies have an official presence on YouTube. They have their own official channel on YT, and most of the time the contents are FREE to watch.
Just go to BiliBili's official YT channel if you want to watch the donghua (I've indexed the link to EP64 below for you where the story from S1 Immortal Ascension continues):
Just finished and the ending kinda what I was expecting based on reading people's spoilers BUT SADDER and it makes…
"So that your giving (of your life to save others) may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:4)
Would you rather TLC gave his life for others and have his actions imprinted into their memories for eternity? This kind of giving is selfish only serves to elevate the ego of the giver.
The most beautiful kind of giving is where the receiver (those who died and then brought back to life) don't even know the identity of their benefactor (TLC). This is the most supreme form of giving.
Imagine two scenarios: (A) You approach a beggar on the street and personally hand him a $20 bill complete with a gleeful smile. Or (B) the beggar on the street looks around and suddenly finds a $20 bill next to him. He looks around for clues to his benefactor, but there are too many people around, he cannot discern who just helped him buy his next meal. Which scenario touched your heart the most?
even Strange Tales (which was 3X as popular as Immortal Ascension) suffered a crushing defeat in viewership by the time S3 aired, we can expect worse performance for Immortal Ascension in the later seasons as well...
TWO POINTS WHICH MAY JUSTIFY THE DRAMA'S LOW SCORES (MDL and Douban):
1. Water Dragon's Roar? Where exactly is the water dragon and when did it "roar"? I'm on EP27 and not once did I witness some "Water Dragon". That's misleading advertisement!
2. Drama was being hyped as a Wuxia, but watches like Xianxia. What kind of Wuxia features making magical formations (casting spells) and celestial beings? I thought Wuxia only deals with kungfu fighting mortals and no magic besides some qigong moves? Again false advertising.
Is anyone watching Renegade Immortal donghua anime? I couldn't help but notice how the ML+FL in that 3D CGI anime produced by Tencent is so similar to Tang Lici and Miss A Shui.
I've read from Gnosticism that when mortals (people) die in real life I mean, their life rewinds backward from the moment of death to birth. They basically relive their entire life again but in reverse time. This drama (or the ending) is an eerie reflection of that...
Only on EP 25, but I just want to say (after being spoiled by various episode summaries found online of later episodes) Immortals don't really have a love life. They become mortals to experience love but then leave everything behind when they "go back home" to the celestial realm.
May explain the ML's love life and the letting go of A Shui in the end...
S1 - 8/10 (397K ratings) S2 - 8.6/10 (306K ratings) S3 - 8.1/10 (53K ratings -- it's aired 75% of episodes so far, which means end result may not differ significantly)
Basically, you can see viewer interest dropped precipitously for S3 (less than 20% of those who watched S1 stuck around till S3).
Immortal Ascension S2 may be good and highly rated, but its viewership may suffer.
I'm only posting here becoz Renegade Immortal is an almost parallel story to Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan (poor village…
Tang Lici makes wood carvings of people as a hobby. I LMAO. Wood carving is such an essential part of Wang Lin,s root.
Whispers of Fate couldn't be a more shoe-in replacement for Renegade Immortal than this!
Finally, I often find myself transposing Li Muwan,s character over Miss A Shui in Whispers of Fate. There were too many instances where I find myself thinking, that's NOT Miss A Shui, that's Wan,Er!
I'm only posting here becoz Renegade Immortal is an almost parallel story to Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan (poor village…
I love how much attention to details they paid to the overall theme of Whispers of Fate to resemble Return of the Condor Heroes (the only Jin Yong work that I like):
Tang Lici got long strands of grey hair (while the majority of his hair still black) running down to his chest like Yang Guo.
Miss A Shui is seen riding on a giant goose (instead of Condor) in some scenes.
When I heard the ending credits song for the 1st time, my initial reaction was it,s that duet song from RoCH 1995 starring Louis Koo and Carman Lee, but in Mandarin and modern tempo:
Like seriously it,s rare to hear a duet song composed for the opening or ending credits of a C-drama, unless it suits the (love) theme of the drama exactly. It also costs more to hire two singers instead of one. This is the money well spent on Whispers of Fate.
I'm only posting here becoz Renegade Immortal is an almost parallel story to Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan (poor village…
I love how Tang Lici got a human servant sidekick like in Renegade Immortal.
CGI is super good too. Maybe the only downside some CGI scenes look like cartoony painting. But then that's what happened in Renegade Immortal too when you're in Wang Lin's life and death domain.
Tang Lici is known as the (cursed) Yin Yang verse. OMG isn't that Wang Lin's duality ruthless life and death domain?
And Miss A Shui (at first) is not the typical strong FL heroine fighter you find in C-dramas like Immortal Ascension. She's a weak beauty like Li Muwan.
In short, rather than waiting for aeons for some studio to produce Renegade Immortal live action drama, Whispers of Fate is already a perfectly adapted "Renegade Immortal".
Not to mention romance too. Whispers of Fate already had a kiss scene 1/4th into the drama where the FL tried to wake the ML up with a kiss. Immortal Ascension S1 almost had no romance.
Speaking of which Whispers of Fate is devoid of any kind of love triangles like in Renegade Immortal. There isn't a character like Mo Caihuan to annoy the viewers...
I'm only posting here becoz Renegade Immortal is an almost parallel story to Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan (poor village mortal boy joins sect to begin his cultivation journey, he haphazardly stumbles upon many opportunities to gather artifacts from mysterious places/domains/worlds, he gets transported to a place/new world (or planet) where he has to leave all his previous acquaintances behind (so it comes with an exagerated/melodramatic goodbye scene), and there is even an arc where he relives the life of a mortal in order to gain insight to evolve to the next level, etc.)
Anyways, Renegade Immortal has quickly overtaken Faren to be my favorite, but only in donghua (they haven't made a Renegade Immortal live action drama yet). Here is where I am deeply disappointed the most... Until
OMG, is anyone watching Whispers of Fate (Shui Long Yin aka Water Dragon's Roar)? I can't believe they got Jelly LIn (of the Mermaid movie fame) to play the FL and her character is almost EXACTLY the same as the FL of Renegade Immortal story. Also ML of Whispers of Fate is the same ruthless character as the ML of Renegade Immortal.
Though they haven't made a Renegade Immortal live action yet, I can certainly live with Whispers of Fate as a shoe in replacement. The resemblances of the ML + FL to Wang LIn and Li MuWan are just too striking!
While you guys wait for S2 of Immmortal Ascension live action, I dare say Whispers of Fate is the same kind of Xianxia drama, if not better!
Basically, I no longer care whether they eventually make a Renegade Immortal live action drama. I am already watching Wang LIn (as Tang LIci) and Li Muwan (as Miss A Shui) look/be-alikes. I can't believe the FL of Whispers of Fate not only looks like Wan'Er from Renegade Immortal but her character and personality matches too!
1. Jittery cutting when they zoom into someone's face. That detracts a lot from the viewing experience. 2. The story is a bit unsophisticated like being presented to a 10 year old.
I stopped caring for/watching Tencent drama series. Tencent only excels in donghua anime series. Most of their dramas are a let down with poor scores on Douban. I find more delight in Youku/iQiyi series now. Three Body S2 is the only one and other Tencent series left on my to watch list.
I think this S2 will run into lots of problems. Like there are now three protagonists BUT only one of them is Chinese. It will look weird when they show a Chinese-made drama series in the Mainland China where a Japanese woman and White man make up for 2/3 of the screen time with the other 1/3rd allocated to a Chinese male leading role.
Those who haven't read the books will think C-ent being hijacked by Japan and USA... (BUT then again, Tencent will find a clever workable solution to this dilemma becoz their S1 scored very highly on Douban)
These execs are dumb. They never seem to learn from history. Based on Jade Dynasty the movie performance that tanked at the box office, they still recruited Xiao Zhan for Condor Heroes that also tanked. Seems they don't care that an actor should prove himself first at the box office before he gets another movie leading role.
Same with Li Wanda. Her recent movie generated the most flak for her bad portrayal of the FL in Under One Person, yet here we are again...
Jelly Lin with Leo Wu for Fights Breaks Sphere was good pairing. Zhao Lusi with Leo Wu for Love Like the Galaxy was excellent pairing. Li Wanda with Leo Wu.... You're lookin for/at disaster!
It's like a MAJOR downgrade from Leo Wu's past series.
Movies on the other hand don't mind showing ppl's real faces complete with wrinkles and blemishes. People tend to look older/closer to their real appearance in movies becoz it's only 2hrs long so the producer don't care to put it thru a CGI beauty filter at all.
Just go to BiliBili's official YT channel if you want to watch the donghua (I've indexed the link to EP64 below for you where the story from S1 Immortal Ascension continues):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDsI4ZD1mV8&list=PLBakWosU0sfhr6k1-ldCYx05AYZ8HwslC&index=112
Would you rather TLC gave his life for others and have his actions imprinted into their memories for eternity? This kind of giving is selfish only serves to elevate the ego of the giver.
The most beautiful kind of giving is where the receiver (those who died and then brought back to life) don't even know the identity of their benefactor (TLC). This is the most supreme form of giving.
Imagine two scenarios: (A) You approach a beggar on the street and personally hand him a $20 bill complete with a gleeful smile. Or (B) the beggar on the street looks around and suddenly finds a $20 bill next to him. He looks around for clues to his benefactor, but there are too many people around, he cannot discern who just helped him buy his next meal. Which scenario touched your heart the most?
https://movie.douban.com/subject/35861087/
8/10 (397K ratings) <- Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty S1
7.5/10 (125K ratings) <- Immortal Ascension S1
even Strange Tales (which was 3X as popular as Immortal Ascension) suffered a crushing defeat in viewership by the time S3 aired, we can expect worse performance for Immortal Ascension in the later seasons as well...
BUT yeah, I can feel how some viewers may feel "cheated" by the drama's title and marketing hype...
1. Water Dragon's Roar? Where exactly is the water dragon and when did it "roar"? I'm on EP27 and not once did I witness some "Water Dragon". That's misleading advertisement!
2. Drama was being hyped as a Wuxia, but watches like Xianxia. What kind of Wuxia features making magical formations (casting spells) and celestial beings? I thought Wuxia only deals with kungfu fighting mortals and no magic besides some qigong moves? Again false advertising.
I even made a threaded post here:
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/755725-shui-long-yin/146464-whispers-of-fate-is-too-similar-to-renegade-immortal
May explain the ML's love life and the letting go of A Shui in the end...
Take a look at how super-popular Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty S1/S2/S3 performed:
https://www.douban.com/doubanapp/dispatch?uri=/tv/35235151
https://www.douban.com/doubanapp/dispatch?uri=/tv/36188849
https://www.douban.com/doubanapp/dispatch?uri=/tv/36318037
S1 - 8/10 (397K ratings)
S2 - 8.6/10 (306K ratings)
S3 - 8.1/10 (53K ratings -- it's aired 75% of episodes so far, which means end result may not differ significantly)
Basically, you can see viewer interest dropped precipitously for S3 (less than 20% of those who watched S1 stuck around till S3).
Immortal Ascension S2 may be good and highly rated, but its viewership may suffer.
Best to go into S2 with very low expectations!
Immortal Ascension
is like
Renegade Immortal
BUT, since there is no live action drama of the latter (yet)...
Whispers of Fate
( https://mydramalist.com/755725-shui-long-yin )
is like
Renegade Immortal
!
Whispers of Fate couldn't be a more shoe-in replacement for Renegade Immortal than this!
Finally, I often find myself transposing Li Muwan,s character over Miss A Shui in Whispers of Fate. There were too many instances where I find myself thinking, that's NOT Miss A Shui, that's Wan,Er!
Tang Lici got long strands of grey hair (while the majority of his hair still black) running down to his chest like Yang Guo.
Miss A Shui is seen riding on a giant goose (instead of Condor) in some scenes.
When I heard the ending credits song for the 1st time, my initial reaction was it,s that duet song from RoCH 1995 starring Louis Koo and Carman Lee, but in Mandarin and modern tempo:
1995 RoCH OST
https://youtu.be/dQy9Oax7ZRw?si=iFBdtquFbmLDR_wd
Whispers of Fate ending duet song
https://youtu.be/0QvRWd5GXss?si=qyO_XBlZa--aWtUC&t=2647
Like seriously it,s rare to hear a duet song composed for the opening or ending credits of a C-drama, unless it suits the (love) theme of the drama exactly. It also costs more to hire two singers instead of one. This is the money well spent on Whispers of Fate.
CGI is super good too. Maybe the only downside some CGI scenes look like cartoony painting. But then that's what happened in Renegade Immortal too when you're in Wang Lin's life and death domain.
Tang Lici is known as the (cursed) Yin Yang verse. OMG isn't that Wang Lin's duality ruthless life and death domain?
And Miss A Shui (at first) is not the typical strong FL heroine fighter you find in C-dramas like Immortal Ascension. She's a weak beauty like Li Muwan.
In short, rather than waiting for aeons for some studio to produce Renegade Immortal live action drama, Whispers of Fate is already a perfectly adapted "Renegade Immortal".
Not to mention romance too. Whispers of Fate already had a kiss scene 1/4th into the drama where the FL tried to wake the ML up with a kiss. Immortal Ascension S1 almost had no romance.
Speaking of which Whispers of Fate is devoid of any kind of love triangles like in Renegade Immortal. There isn't a character like Mo Caihuan to annoy the viewers...
Anyways, Renegade Immortal has quickly overtaken Faren to be my favorite, but only in donghua (they haven't made a Renegade Immortal live action drama yet). Here is where I am deeply disappointed the most... Until
OMG, is anyone watching Whispers of Fate (Shui Long Yin aka Water Dragon's Roar)? I can't believe they got Jelly LIn (of the Mermaid movie fame) to play the FL and her character is almost EXACTLY the same as the FL of Renegade Immortal story. Also ML of Whispers of Fate is the same ruthless character as the ML of Renegade Immortal.
Though they haven't made a Renegade Immortal live action yet, I can certainly live with Whispers of Fate as a shoe in replacement. The resemblances of the ML + FL to Wang LIn and Li MuWan are just too striking!
While you guys wait for S2 of Immmortal Ascension live action, I dare say Whispers of Fate is the same kind of Xianxia drama, if not better!
https://mydramalist.com/755725-shui-long-yin
Basically, I no longer care whether they eventually make a Renegade Immortal live action drama. I am already watching Wang LIn (as Tang LIci) and Li Muwan (as Miss A Shui) look/be-alikes. I can't believe the FL of Whispers of Fate not only looks like Wan'Er from Renegade Immortal but her character and personality matches too!
https://movie.douban.com/subject/36372332/
--------
Things I found annoying:
1. Jittery cutting when they zoom into someone's face. That detracts a lot from the viewing experience.
2. The story is a bit unsophisticated like being presented to a 10 year old.
I stopped caring for/watching Tencent drama series. Tencent only excels in donghua anime series. Most of their dramas are a let down with poor scores on Douban. I find more delight in Youku/iQiyi series now. Three Body S2 is the only one and other Tencent series left on my to watch list.
I think this S2 will run into lots of problems. Like there are now three protagonists BUT only one of them is Chinese. It will look weird when they show a Chinese-made drama series in the Mainland China where a Japanese woman and White man make up for 2/3 of the screen time with the other 1/3rd allocated to a Chinese male leading role.
Those who haven't read the books will think C-ent being hijacked by Japan and USA... (BUT then again, Tencent will find a clever workable solution to this dilemma becoz their S1 scored very highly on Douban)
Same with Li Wanda. Her recent movie generated the most flak for her bad portrayal of the FL in Under One Person, yet here we are again...
Jelly Lin with Leo Wu for Fights Breaks Sphere was good pairing.
Zhao Lusi with Leo Wu for Love Like the Galaxy was excellent pairing.
Li Wanda with Leo Wu.... You're lookin for/at disaster!
It's like a MAJOR downgrade from Leo Wu's past series.