PeachBlossomGoddess

Its barely noticeable, mostly side characters.

Yeah she totally had the hots for him.

Watch Brotherhood of the Blades 1 and 2 for more Chang Chen. He looks so much better there. I am still angry they made him up so badly for this show. I think they deliberately "aged" him which is completely unnecessary.

I agree, there are definitely more. My guess is about 60 in total.

Can't believe Amazon still hasnt posted the rest. I am waiting also.

I couldn't agree more. In general there has been so little progress since Jin Yong's time. He wrote way better FL characters than anyone but since his time, the big hits have been all these idol actresses who all look like Chinese Barbie and speak in two pitch tones higher than normal!

LOL - tyvm so kind of you. And it is so great tp know I am not alone in this. Btw, I wasn't brave. More like foolish... I had just joined this site and had not yet met fans of the more rabid variety!

Or clueless. I think my favorite scenes are all the ones where Ye Hua is just incredibly mean to her.

What are you watching that everyone hates? Maybe I will check it out. I liked L&D a lot but I really dislike at least two of the top dramas out there as well. To each his own.

Yeah I didn't "feel"them either.

Well no harm checking out a few episodes to see for yourself...

Doubt it but best keep a low profile... not really keen to be spammed by angry fans... I didn't hate it though - just thought it was so bad it actually made me laugh.

Not that much less - in fact before these caps were put in place the rumored pay was much much more. In Western dramas, it has to be a top hit series like NCIS or Third Rock for the leads to be paid $500k-$1mm per episode and they pretty much do just that show and nothing else all year. These Chinese dramas take 3-5 months to shoot so the actors can take on more than one project a year and the production company takes all the risk that it flops. Before the ban the rumored pay for some of the idol actors exceeded many Western drama leads. And then the likes of the totally overrated and overpaid Fan Bingbing went on to evade USD$130mm in taxes this year. She is one of the reasons the government is cracking down so hard on this industry and capping pay for everyone else. In the West such a bad actress would never be paid such a crazy amount of money.

1 million chinese renminbi. Its approximately $140,000 USD.

I think the writing is disappointing unless you are a diehard book fan. They waste too much time on world building kind of like trying to create this Novoland universe they can milk for multiple seasons. The battle scenes and cinematography are quite epic. But not much of a story unless you like lots of political intrigue and art of war. Also there isn't much romance just good friendship. Depends on what you are looking for. Its an ok show.

If you need subtitles I suggest you wait. I think Untamed is fully subbed but I am one of the minority that really didn't like Untamed at all so I am not recommending it. I am just suggesting not to start L&D until more of it is subbed.

This website has a very good blog episode recap for this that will answer most of your questions episode by episode. Enjoy!

http://dr-myri-blog.blogspot.com/2015/12/nirvana-in-fire-episode-20-recap.html

This is not confirmed yet. My understanding is it is still in the industry consultation phase. In other industries, the outcome to proposed regulatory changes take industry feedback into consideration so it is possible that we end up at a limit of 48 or 50 episodes. Note that iQiyi, Tencent and Youku have submitted a joint proposal to limit lead actor pay to RMB 1mm/episode or RMB 50mm/drama so we kind of know that the industry is lobbying for a 50 limit. Hopefully it is also grandfathered for dramas that have already completed production. But if not, they can cut out all the fillers and any secondary love line. TMOPB essentially covered two love stories in 58 episodes. There is no reason they can't do Pillow Book with 40-50. It may actually end up being better. As much as I loved L&D and the Legends, IMHO they could have easily done it in 40 episodes without some of the silly time wasters.

If I remember correctly the test was just to make sure the candidates for Nihuang's husband were suitable candidates. I guess once the emperor was no longer choosing a husband for her it was not necessary anymore.

It is also fully subbed on Viki but if you are not in the US you may need a VPN to watch it. Viki probably has better subtitles but I just watched it on Youtube bc I don't need them.