PeachBlossomGoddess

I am watching this at a snail's pace. I don't think its bad so I can't figure out whether it is because I am just in a dreadful, evil slump or it is the drama. I am not exactly thinking of dropping it, I just can't get motivated to keep going. Is it just me?

The female lead roles were fantastic - both strong and capable women. But agree completely the acting for Lin Xi fell far short of the writing and there was no chemistry there. Thank goodness it is not a romance story!

Their Chinese app is fantastic but the English one is a very poor cousin. They should just add a select English language as an option and add a filter that allows users to search for English subbed content only to their existing app. Waste of money and time to launch such a shoddy and inferior product when the original is even miles better than Netflix. Tip - the Chinese app already has English and Chinese subs for big hit movies like Brotherhood of the Blades. You can download it from the store if you set you region to say Hong Kong or possibly other parts of Asia but the whole thing is in Chinese although easy to navigate regardless.

It is missing from iQiyi's list (Oct 18) of the 12 highly anticipated key TV drama releases for 2020... Fingers crossed that means it will come out in 4Q 2019.

I totally hear you. Great story and actors but one giant mess in terms of production.

Its a service that allows you to change your location. So I was able to watch NIF from the Philippines on Viki and Changan from San Francisco on Amazon. My folks don't subscribe to Astro so they just use ExpressVPN to watch everything, usually from Viki bc my mom needs subs. Its very easy to change location from their app until you find a location that is not blocked.
https://www.expressvpn.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwi7DtBRCLARIsAGCJWBr5L4RKseJqWh4xVKSb1TUEkJyVq6X6N_PVwjOtJ5dwcLxsE96wDSoaAukgEALw_wcB&refID=HK_Brand

Oh no! If you watch a lot of c-drama you should get a VPN, esp where you are because Astro has the rights so many of the Viki shows are blocked. Same issue here many local channels have them and often dubbed into Canto I really don't want to watch those versions. I use Express VPN its easy to use and good to get around it. I have only seen the translation of the songs on Viki.

LOL tyvm - I think I have just watched/read way too many of these stories...

Tiffany Tang disappeared from cast list...

LOL - u r probably right about TMOPB but I just have the impression his family wasn't that warm to him.
When I search Chang Chen on youtube many links to his older movies come up and I think they are on some of the Asian drama sites. I have the DVDs for the older ones and I watched Brotherhood of Blades on Apple TV but I think at least one of them is on Amazon Prime. Also try Netflix. I think if you search you can get most of them.

LOL - I largely agree with you although I would observe YH was whipped by lightning many more times and his grandpa was really nasty.
I am a big CC fan, I love his look too and he is really an exceptional actor. He was a second lead in Crouching Tiger with Chow Yuen Fatt and paired up with Zhang Ziyi - I think its a ok movie only. I started his latest movie Savage but I didn't finish, its only so-so. Gweilo are much better at those kinds of contemporary movies. His "hot" movies are Three Times with Shu Qi and Eros with Gong Li. Make sure you have a big jug of cold water if you watch those. But his best lead role performances were in Brotherhood of the Blades 1+2 which are awesome. He also had many good supporting roles with Tony Leung including Red Cliff and Grandmaster.

It not that hard to get in and out of the abyss once it is opened- JX and his sidekick did when they were trying to kill LingYue and JC rescued LY with no issue as well - LX is a high goddess it shouldn't be hard for her. I vaguely remember LX transformed into a bird and flew out after sealing the gate.
JC was tricked by JX - JX told him that he would have to sacrifice himself to guard the gate and give up his life with LX. JC believed him and put his affairs in order. It was kind of true because he could only push the evil forces back but he couldn't seal the gate. They couldn't harm him either. It was a draw and he was stuck there. YT was the one that told him two people were needed to seal the gate - he wasn't powerful enough on his own - also not complete info but what do u expect from the baddies? It all came together when they realized JX became the Demon King and was already outside the gate and drawing all the evil forces out towards him. Once JX came back to the gate to confront them, they were able to push him into the gate. JC restrained JX while LX sealed the gate.
My guess is it took JC 300 years to finally kill off JX and then it was safe for him to unseal the gate to get out and seal it again. The last part is just my guess it is left open. But the drama gives us many hints on how he got out. JX admits that his desire for LX was his inner demon that made him cross to the dark side. LX tells their daughter that YT was someone who loss her battle with evil. And the Demon King had once also accused JC of opening his heart to evil once he fell for LX. So the key to emerging from the gate has to be something to do with defeating the evil in his heart figuratively or if you want to make it literal then killing JX (evil). LX and JC are both so moral and honorable, they have almost no dark side and are forgiving to their enemies. You could say they have no evil in their hearts so if anyone is able to get out it should be JC and LX. And maybe it is just as simple as once JC can eliminate any evil from his heart he can literally just walk out because the seal only keeps evil in. I like it that they left it to us to think about it.

Yes it does have a happy ending. And yes well worth watching even though to me TMOPB was still more addictive.

To @dramaguzzler and re your laid back feel comment.

Looks super but I must admit I am quite disturbed to find that my ratings are quite consistently not age appropriate... Maybe I need to lie about my age group to properly align my ratings... LOL - half kidding, this will help a lot.

It wasn't hard for LX to get out since she sealed him from outside. It was much harder for JC to get out because he did it from inside. But I think Tien Jun and Zhonghao father (fact check- my memory is faulty) did it before in the past. It takes a very powerful immortal to be able to get back out - that is why JC was the only one who could go instead of his sifu. YT shared with him the final missing info on how to come back out.

Agree with you and@JaLD last sentiment. I replied @dramaguzzler below explaining why I think so too.

Check Viki.

The same director made JOF, TMOPB and L&D. You can see many common ideas. She loves cross dressing the men for example and makes the supporting characters very androgynous. I was kind of disappointed she didn't put CC in a dress but I guess with his star power he drew the line at the pastel outfits. She was obviously able to bully MC into much more girly outfits including that darn nightgown.

CC+NN are both much better actors than MC+YM. We probably would have gotten a lot steamier scenes in this were it not whitewashed on many levels due to the CP 70th anniversary. CC is a very uninhibited actor that has made some very highly acclaimed movies of a more adult nature. NN bears a strong resemblance to Shu Qi who was in a pretty hot love movie with him and was once linked romantically with him. L&D was supposed to be inspired by Lolita and I think the original intent was to take things up a notch from TMOPB. CC is btw paired up with YM in Brotherhood of the Blades 2.

I love both dramas and I think L&D is better done. I am in a slump but not re-watching it. I binge re-watched TMOPB over and over again - in fact I had to ban myself from it. I think the difference is as much as I love them the leads are just too nice. They don't have a dark side. I disagree that YH was perfect - he was a ruthless cad who sneaked into SS's bed even though he was engaged. And when he went after BQ he just moved in. He totally manipulated BQ and made sure she transferred her loyalty from MY to him before helping her save MY. He is definitely a very ruthless character. And the way he stabbed SJ. Not to mention how bad-ass BQ herself was. I really wanted to see JC/LX hit back hard at their enemies but they didn't give it to me. I think the lack of complication and darkness in their natures made the show very enjoyable but not as addictive for me. It also helps that TMOPB was a book so the story is more substantive and rounded out. I think Pillow Book is an even better story with more morally ambiguous characters but sadly I think the actors will fall far short. Hope I am wrong on that last bit.

Yeah,really makes me laugh to think that the immortals are just confused about this! Actually this is a very well explored topic in both L&D and TMOPB. To JC, LX and LM are the same - he tells LM in the mortal realm that he doesn't want her to forget him. And LX only becomes a high goddess skipping all the other levels because of her experiences during her mortal trials so LM is part of the LX she grows up into. It was also in TMOPB where to YH, SS and BQ are the same right away but BQ had to try not to be jealous of SS and she was very adamant that YH is not allowed to love anyone else during his mortal trial . FJ and DJ were both impacted by their love in the mortal realm- neither could leave it behind. Generally observe the women seem more confused about their identities in each incarnation. Men are more visual: looks the same means they are the same!!! LMAO!!!