Unfortunately, I dropped this. I want to like this very much. But everything just feels so wrong, from the acting…
Heroes sucked. Totally forgetable and wasted my time. I only like FL in EverNight S2. I became suspicous of Yang ChaoYue after watching Heroes. Seems Tencent only wants to cast this lady in filler dramas till the next big hit... Which is S2 of Ancient Love Poetry. Dance of Phoenix was weird as heck with weird ending: "Im not really Feng Wu just someone who looks and acts like her... WTH?!?!" I will sit this one out.
Not just S2 but also S3. It's all thanks to Netflix. Tencent not gonna back down from doing S2 and S3. If they stopped, all their WeTV subscribers will flock to Netflix to continue the series!
S2 and S3 will be EVEN BETTER than S1 and here are the reasons why:
1. Set in the near/far future, so Tencent has to be more imaginative and create more exquisite looking sets/find more exquisite filming locations.
2. More pew pew action-oriented. The Sci-Fi that people have come to know and love, not just talking their ways to solve a suicide mystery.
3. Two giants fighting over VIP subscribers. It's a good thing Netflix got involved in 3Body as well. Makes Tencent strive much harder to win over VIP subscribers. There are very few people who subscribe to BOTH WeTV AND Netflix. It's either or, so it's a battle of survival for Tencent as well as Netflix. They will definitely look to outdo each other.
4. Tencent did not and had not delivered their best work yet. S1 just a warm up. If they threw all they were capable of throwing into S1 and air it before Netflix does, it makes them reveal their strategy to Netflix and allows Netflix time to copy and one-up Tencent. So Tencent has to save and keep secret their best moves for S2 and S3...
5. You all saw how Tencent injected their own elements into S1. The female news reporter definitely does NOT exist in the book. So, just you wait how much more ingenuity of their own Tencent adds to the sequel series! Such changes are protected by copyright laws, therefore the female news reporter cannot exist as a secondary female lead in Netflix's works!
TO FAN THE SCI-FI FEVER TENCENT SHOULD also ADAPT TWIN MOONS. They already did the Twin Moons anime in 2016. Basically part of the moon got destroyed, then its movement got out of whack and could collide with the Earth. To counter it, mankind built a second, but much smaller artificial moon to stabilize the moon's orbit, hence the TWIN MOON. And then a bunch of conspiracies involving two factions, the military and all that good stuff. Other than Liu Cixin's works, this could be the next cool Sci-Fi thing to adapt, so Tencent should really consider adapting it into live action, in addition to 3Body S2, S3, etc.
8.1/100000+ votes on Douban (so far). On track to become top drama of 2023 in China...https://www.douban.com/search?q=%E4%B8%89%E4%BD%93
Yes, we are ALL Westerners like you cheering on some idol drama(s) when we could ALL witness the birth of Sci Fi in China in the cinema and also on TV...
3K GLASSES IN EVERYONE's HOME. I think Ep 5 came as a shocker to everyone when the universe flickered before Wang Miao's eyes. BUT, you should know everyone has a pair of 3K glasses in their home (I think). If you, your siblings, or your parents bought a laptop in the 2010's, those almost all come with TFT screens with very aggressive flickering, like when Wang Miao put on the 3K glasses, but the blinking is much faster. To see the effect, you only need to set the desktop background to pure white and turn the brightness down to 50%. Then wave your hand (or a pen) before the laptop screen and see for yourself the magic of Pulse Width Modulation.
Also, Ep 4, if you look at Yang Dong's room carefully, you can spot a vintage IBM laptop computer on the desk (the ones made by IBM before Lenovo bought them out). It's amazing seeing how much effort Tencent put into acquiring these types of props.
8.1/100000+ votes on Douban (so far). On track to become top drama of 2023 in China...https://www.douban.com/search?q=%E4%B8%89%E4%BD%93
LOL. What world u live in? If Douban votes mean nothing, y all China online news only quote Douban score and not something like IMDB score or even MDL score? Douban is like Weibo or WeChat in China, it's the only thing that matters there!
BTW, what you mean recoup investment? You obviously don't know how Tencent makes the profit. They don't make dramas just to secure airing rights from TV channels. For Tencent it's all about VIP subscriptions! PLUS, they've learnt too much from their moba game business, only a few handful top-up players make the most money for them. The same way for dramas, only a few handful dramas will make them BIG VIP subscriptions. BUT they need the loss making ones to keep their business going like if they don't have free moba players besides the top up players the game will fail because no one to play with. BUT honestly is something as BIG as Liu Cixin a loss making business venture? I think not!
It got a head start, but only managed 8.2/135000 votes so far.
Meanwhile, Three Body released 12 days later already 8.1/127800 votes.
Also, don't forget Wandering Earth 2 will give 3Body a HUGE hype bump. By the end of it all, 3Body might score a few percentages/decimal points lower, but the viewership much higher and make it overal winner/top drama (rating x votes count = top drama of 2023)!
It's not the drama that has odd pacing. Just the original work is very complicated and nightmare to adapt into…
That's just the way Chinese folks are, very emotive. Look at Chun Li in StreetFighter, she explodes with joy on winning a match. Also look at some (female) Chinese athlete gold medalists during Tokyo 2021. They don't hold back just make faces into the camera when winning gold.
Just completed 3 ep., so Volkswagen is the main sponsors…Can see a lot of effort on special effects.Is it me…
It's not the drama that has odd pacing. Just the original work is very complicated and nightmare to adapt into live action. SO, Tencent is taking the piecemeal approach. They feed you the complexity of the plot bit by bit. Hence the odd pacing. It's a simple but very effective approach. Let you chew the work bit by bit.
All this alluded to in Ep 4 where it's claimed Yang Dong's favorite music is composed by Bach. She claims she enjoys it because she visualizes each piece like someone trying to build a house brick by brick, layer by layer. It may not be evident as you're listening to it but by the end of the track, the builder has built a complete house.
I love chinese shows but no 2 is too exaggerated. Yes tencent CGI for this drama is good. But...Everyone knows…
You the one who is Hollywood fanboy. Go read the post history. I have bashed Tencent works plenty. To me Hollywood just plain sucks. Hollywood just like Elon Musk. The man just throws billions and billions at stuff so eventually one or two things work and people then call him a genius. Tencent just the opposite of Musk, spend as much as you need to get something done, not over spend like Hollywood.
I HAVE ACTUALLY EXPERIENCED THE FIRST 5 EPISODES in REAL LIFE.
I really don't want to retype the long post, but I have actually experienced in real life the freaky incidence of Wang Miao.
When I saw how Wang Miao became mentally disturbed by the onset of the DIGITAL countdown timer in his eyes, I said to myself, I can identify with that!
Found ep 1 on youtube! From the official tencent yt channel.https://youtu.be/YrLompD6e_k
There is no need to "find" anything. If the show has the potential for Tencent to gain more VIP subscribers who want to watch episodes in advance, it will be shown on WeTV.vip/en (remember to add the slash EN at the end)...
As always Tencent supports free viewing, meaning VIP episodes will become un-VIP for free viewing when more VIP episodes get released.
Also, the good thing about WeTV vs YouTube is WeTV doesn't show those annoying ad banners at the bottom of the screen that requires you to constantly click on X to get rid of them!
I love chinese shows but no 2 is too exaggerated. Yes tencent CGI for this drama is good. But...Everyone knows…
Get real buddy. This is a TV show, not a movie. No sane company pours millions of dollars into the short CGI sequences of a 1000s minutes long work. To expect "Avatar-level CGI" in a TV drama is laughable!
BUT that does not mean Tencent cannot match Hollywood. Just look at the kind of CGI Tencent done for Sword Snow Stride (when the MC rides a giant turtle swimming in a lake/sea) that kind of scene is Hollywood level CGI+SFX. Also look at Legend of Ravaging Dynasty. When the work demands movie-quality effects, Tencent will deliver it!
BTW, if you really want to hit on the topic, then I will say Hollywood SFX actually sucks compared to Tencent. Like take the worm hole space travel in STAR WARS (aka subspace hyperdrive). It's just a straight monochrome tunnel (like the flat Earth theory, very plain and boring). But look at worm hole space travel in Knights on Debris, inside the worm hole it's very colorful and the wormhole is like a winding tunnel (with twists and turns as the spaceship attempts to get to the exit at the other end) not the plain straight boring one in STAR WARS.
So, look again in Ep 1 at the CGI accelerating particle, you notice it moving thru a very colorful/rainbow matrix (or environment) plus the particle is spinning on the horizontal axis as it moves, like how a speeding bullet is actually twisting as it slices thru the air. If Hollywood had done that exactly same scene, the space matrix would be a very dull monochrome (like in STAR WARS) and the particle non-spinning like a speeding comet contrary to actual reality...
1. Set in the near/far future, so Tencent has to be more imaginative and create more exquisite looking sets/find more exquisite filming locations.
2. More pew pew action-oriented. The Sci-Fi that people have come to know and love, not just talking their ways to solve a suicide mystery.
3. Two giants fighting over VIP subscribers. It's a good thing Netflix got involved in 3Body as well. Makes Tencent strive much harder to win over VIP subscribers. There are very few people who subscribe to BOTH WeTV AND Netflix. It's either or, so it's a battle of survival for Tencent as well as Netflix. They will definitely look to outdo each other.
4. Tencent did not and had not delivered their best work yet. S1 just a warm up. If they threw all they were capable of throwing into S1 and air it before Netflix does, it makes them reveal their strategy to Netflix and allows Netflix time to copy and one-up Tencent. So Tencent has to save and keep secret their best moves for S2 and S3...
5. You all saw how Tencent injected their own elements into S1. The female news reporter definitely does NOT exist in the book. So, just you wait how much more ingenuity of their own Tencent adds to the sequel series! Such changes are protected by copyright laws, therefore the female news reporter cannot exist as a secondary female lead in Netflix's works!
Also, Ep 4, if you look at Yang Dong's room carefully, you can spot a vintage IBM laptop computer on the desk (the ones made by IBM before Lenovo bought them out). It's amazing seeing how much effort Tencent put into acquiring these types of props.
BTW, what you mean recoup investment? You obviously don't know how Tencent makes the profit. They don't make dramas just to secure airing rights from TV channels. For Tencent it's all about VIP subscriptions! PLUS, they've learnt too much from their moba game business, only a few handful top-up players make the most money for them. The same way for dramas, only a few handful dramas will make them BIG VIP subscriptions. BUT they need the loss making ones to keep their business going like if they don't have free moba players besides the top up players the game will fail because no one to play with. BUT honestly is something as BIG as Liu Cixin a loss making business venture? I think not!
https://movie.douban.com/subject/35662223/
It got a head start, but only managed 8.2/135000 votes so far.
Meanwhile, Three Body released 12 days later already 8.1/127800 votes.
Also, don't forget Wandering Earth 2 will give 3Body a HUGE hype bump. By the end of it all, 3Body might score a few percentages/decimal points lower, but the viewership much higher and make it overal winner/top drama (rating x votes count = top drama of 2023)!
https://www.douban.com/search?q=%E4%B8%89%E4%BD%93
All this alluded to in Ep 4 where it's claimed Yang Dong's favorite music is composed by Bach. She claims she enjoys it because she visualizes each piece like someone trying to build a house brick by brick, layer by layer. It may not be evident as you're listening to it but by the end of the track, the builder has built a complete house.
Most dramas I rewatch I'm like "been there done that" on the second viewing. BUT this drama is even better on the second viewing!
I really don't want to retype the long post, but I have actually experienced in real life the freaky incidence of Wang Miao.
When I saw how Wang Miao became mentally disturbed by the onset of the DIGITAL countdown timer in his eyes, I said to myself, I can identify with that!
You can read more in the FORUM post above...
As always Tencent supports free viewing, meaning VIP episodes will become un-VIP for free viewing when more VIP episodes get released.
Also, the good thing about WeTV vs YouTube is WeTV doesn't show those annoying ad banners at the bottom of the screen that requires you to constantly click on X to get rid of them!
BUT that does not mean Tencent cannot match Hollywood. Just look at the kind of CGI Tencent done for Sword Snow Stride (when the MC rides a giant turtle swimming in a lake/sea) that kind of scene is Hollywood level CGI+SFX. Also look at Legend of Ravaging Dynasty. When the work demands movie-quality effects, Tencent will deliver it!
BTW, if you really want to hit on the topic, then I will say Hollywood SFX actually sucks compared to Tencent. Like take the worm hole space travel in STAR WARS (aka subspace hyperdrive). It's just a straight monochrome tunnel (like the flat Earth theory, very plain and boring). But look at worm hole space travel in Knights on Debris, inside the worm hole it's very colorful and the wormhole is like a winding tunnel (with twists and turns as the spaceship attempts to get to the exit at the other end) not the plain straight boring one in STAR WARS.
So, look again in Ep 1 at the CGI accelerating particle, you notice it moving thru a very colorful/rainbow matrix (or environment) plus the particle is spinning on the horizontal axis as it moves, like how a speeding bullet is actually twisting as it slices thru the air. If Hollywood had done that exactly same scene, the space matrix would be a very dull monochrome (like in STAR WARS) and the particle non-spinning like a speeding comet contrary to actual reality...