Honestly, I don't get it... What is the age gap between Zhou Xiao Feng and Fang Xiao Ran? If their mother left him when he was 5 and visited him when he was about to get the final Gaokao it has to be already like... 12-13 years? So Xiao Ran was for sure already born. It was inconvenient to make a career and take care of the kid, but at the same time, she had another kid and somehow managed to get a nice and loving relationship with her despite "years of being abroad" for work.
I understand she remarried and had a happy family (so her husband was helping her raise Xiao Ran when her mother was working?) so why her first husband and Zhou Xiao Feng's father couldn't help her? I don't get it why she left him, but later (while still working hard and couldn't take him) she managed to get another kid.
Empress Ki has no fictional background... She was from Goryeo (historical Korean kingdom, not random fictional…
I do understand your point (about using "undocumented nowhere so more safe to made it up" part of history - btw I said it was distortion not downgrade to Ki character to have baby with the king), but also believe it is going way too far with the whole cancelling (they could have redo it like with Ondal) or with posting private data about drama crew in public and having them fired and lynched.
Empress Ki has no fictional background... She was from Goryeo (historical Korean kingdom, not random fictional…
Yes, but it doesn't change the fact that they showed the actual Korean historical girl being wife and empress to the actual historical Chinese emperor. Isn't it also distortion to poor historical Empress Gi whom they made as "having affair" with some random Korean king (btw he is based on the true king)? So distorting the Korean king is not ok, but distorting a Korean girl, who became a Chinese Empress is not? Or distorting the history of another nation (not your own) is ok?
Point is, no historical drama, be it Chinese, Korean or any other (same for western) is 100% true unless it is documentary (plus still documentaries can't be 100% true because we do not know 100% of history, any history with time is becoming fragmented and wrong because we lack knowledge/historical records).
That's why they have info at the beginning of each episode that this is fiction and based on historical facts. That's why it is becoming a little bit too insane with knatz cancelling it - now no historical drama will be filmed because everyone will be afraid to "offend" anyone in the slightest way.
korean have no problem with creative freedom as long as famous historical figures are not disrespected or korean…
Empress Ki has no fictional background... She was from Goryeo (historical Korean kingdom, not random fictional land) and she became the wife of Toghon Temür (emperor from Yuan dynasty)... so Empress Ki is not fictional background, but I guess in 2013 then they made it it was ok and noboby cared so much (or it was ok because Korean lady became Chinese Empress and had Chinese Emperor being crazy over her?)
Thanks, I'm following this YouTube channel but will wait as they add little more subs, so I won't worry that again will have to wait for new ones too much xD
At the beginning, I feel awkward to see ZZY acting a 15 year old. I read that in China many viewers don’t like…
Well, they could have just get younger actress to play younger version and then switch to ZZY, they do such thing all the time in other dramas... ZZY wouldn't have needed to play 15 old...
Another year has passed and I wish you all an awesome New Year 2017! <3
Here is a small list of dramas and movies I watched in 2016 (last year I found the idea of making such list as very nice and I made mine too ^^).
Compared to 2015, in 2016 I can see some increase of my watch-time (+1 more drama and +6 more movies haha), but mostly I think 2016 was more diverse in terms of dramas from other regions - I watched more Chinese and Japanese productions (only 6 overall in 2015, compared to 10 dramas and 4 movies in 2016 - so here we can see the increased number).
I would really want to keep this trend (to not get bored of Korean genre) in 2017 - but I'd like also to not miss new/old Korean dramas too - it mat be hard with my limited time, but we will see! :)
Here is the summary of dramas and movies I watched in 2017 :)
Compared to 2016: - I see I started to watch more historical productions from Japan and China (probably because I think in 2017 the quality of Korean sageuks decreased sadly). - Despite the fact that I started translating dramas on Viki, my watching increased. Maybe because I play less games? xD
For 2018: - I would like to still focus on other regions historical dramas (but numbers of episodes of Chinese dramas are killing me and it will take me months to finish one >.>) - Watch some more from my "PTW" list since some titles are there for ages XD
Compared to 2017 I watched less (like 9 titles less) and also stopped subbing on Viki - it's mostly due to fact I started to play MMOs more this year with my friends (FF14 :P) and I don't think this trend will change in 2019.
Also 2018 was quite disappointing in terms of sageuks for me (Korean historical dramas) as only one or two were batter than average (yes, Mr. Sunshine is the best drama of the year for me, 2nd place is Tribes and Empires: Storm of Prophecy) - not sure why sageuk genre is currently having troubles but it seems after "young fusion sageuks" wave we don't see a big "omg omg success" - hopefully 2019 will be better.
It means, I started focusing more on Chinese historical dramas, but on other hand they are soooo longgggg that I managed to watch only few of them - thus smaller numbers of "watched dramas" for 2018.
And as every year, a little summary of my "Drama year".
Unfortunately, this year was far the "worst" of all in my "drama career" - not sure if it's due to overall lower quality of sageuks these years (I feel they tend to be more "fluffy cute fusion sageuks for teenagers with k-idols" instead of typical sageuks); my burnout (after all I watched a lot of historical dramas and many schemes/cliches are similar everywhere; plus super long Chinese dramas don't help...) or that my "phase for dramas" is ending a bit (I tend to have "phases" of intense watching Star Trek series or playing, for last half a year I was in love again with FF14 and its newest expansion Shadowbringers :P).
Also nowadays I can't focus too much if episodes are longer than 45 min or drama is super long (hallo Chinese historical dramas... but also Asadora this year was hard to finish... took me like 1 year but episodes are only 15 min!), so it's not helping.
I didn't even manage to watch more movies although I wanted to clean my movie TWL. :(
Nevertheless, I hope to pick some nice dramas in 2020 - maybe quality over quantity is way to go. ;)
Honestly, I don't get it... What is the age gap between Zhou Xiao Feng and Fang Xiao Ran? If their mother left him when he was 5 and visited him when he was about to get the final Gaokao it has to be already like... 12-13 years? So Xiao Ran was for sure already born. It was inconvenient to make a career and take care of the kid, but at the same time, she had another kid and somehow managed to get a nice and loving relationship with her despite "years of being abroad" for work.
I understand she remarried and had a happy family (so her husband was helping her raise Xiao Ran when her mother was working?) so why her first husband and Zhou Xiao Feng's father couldn't help her? I don't get it why she left him, but later (while still working hard and couldn't take him) she managed to get another kid.
Point is, no historical drama, be it Chinese, Korean or any other (same for western) is 100% true unless it is documentary (plus still documentaries can't be 100% true because we do not know 100% of history, any history with time is becoming fragmented and wrong because we lack knowledge/historical records).
That's why they have info at the beginning of each episode that this is fiction and based on historical facts. That's why it is becoming a little bit too insane with knatz cancelling it - now no historical drama will be filmed because everyone will be afraid to "offend" anyone in the slightest way.
Read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Gi & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toghon_Tem%C3%BCr, Empress Ki is not fictional, story may be in some parts but characters are not.
I started to love it and after episode 2 there is no eng subbs... this is terrible...
Here is a small list of dramas and movies I watched in 2016 (last year I found the idea of making such list as very nice and I made mine too ^^).
Compared to 2015, in 2016 I can see some increase of my watch-time (+1 more drama and +6 more movies haha), but mostly I think 2016 was more diverse in terms of dramas from other regions - I watched more Chinese and Japanese productions (only 6 overall in 2015, compared to 10 dramas and 4 movies in 2016 - so here we can see the increased number).
I would really want to keep this trend (to not get bored of Korean genre) in 2017 - but I'd like also to not miss new/old Korean dramas too - it mat be hard with my limited time, but we will see! :)
Compared to 2016:
- I see I started to watch more historical productions from Japan and China (probably because I think in 2017 the quality of Korean sageuks decreased sadly).
- Despite the fact that I started translating dramas on Viki, my watching increased. Maybe because I play less games? xD
For 2018:
- I would like to still focus on other regions historical dramas (but numbers of episodes of Chinese dramas are killing me and it will take me months to finish one >.>)
- Watch some more from my "PTW" list since some titles are there for ages XD
Also 2018 was quite disappointing in terms of sageuks for me (Korean historical dramas) as only one or two were batter than average (yes, Mr. Sunshine is the best drama of the year for me, 2nd place is Tribes and Empires: Storm of Prophecy) - not sure why sageuk genre is currently having troubles but it seems after "young fusion sageuks" wave we don't see a big "omg omg success" - hopefully 2019 will be better.
It means, I started focusing more on Chinese historical dramas, but on other hand they are soooo longgggg that I managed to watch only few of them - thus smaller numbers of "watched dramas" for 2018.
Unfortunately, this year was far the "worst" of all in my "drama career" - not sure if it's due to overall lower quality of sageuks these years (I feel they tend to be more "fluffy cute fusion sageuks for teenagers with k-idols" instead of typical sageuks); my burnout (after all I watched a lot of historical dramas and many schemes/cliches are similar everywhere; plus super long Chinese dramas don't help...) or that my "phase for dramas" is ending a bit (I tend to have "phases" of intense watching Star Trek series or playing, for last half a year I was in love again with FF14 and its newest expansion Shadowbringers :P).
Also nowadays I can't focus too much if episodes are longer than 45 min or drama is super long (hallo Chinese historical dramas... but also Asadora this year was hard to finish... took me like 1 year but episodes are only 15 min!), so it's not helping.
I didn't even manage to watch more movies although I wanted to clean my movie TWL. :(
Nevertheless, I hope to pick some nice dramas in 2020 - maybe quality over quantity is way to go. ;)
Best Couple:: Fu Yao and Zhang Sun Wuji
Btw I do not any reason to watch historical dramas, I LOVE them <3