PeachBlossomGoddess

Makes sense, I am in pretty much the same place.

Keep going then. You are going to be FED.

Ty for your kind words. I have been terribly busy this year. Do find the time to watch this and I hope you enjoy it.

Tyvm my dear. 😘🌸I think this could satiate your hunger for angst...

Ah ok, good to know.👍 I rarely get round to watching movies either.😅

Her name in Chinese was 夏一丹. According to Douban she played Ji Li's clone. She was a Uyghur actress.

Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY_ile4IPNs

I liked the ending it made sense to me so I guess I don’t understand what the big fuss is about beyond that not happy endings are not popular. For this genre 7.3 on Douban is pretty good I am skeptical it could have done much better regardless of ending.

Yes I heard. I don’t have any issue with the ending so I am quite indifferent to what the bot’s feedback was.

Yes the unpopular ending certainly weighed.

Douban 7.3 ~ 53k votes.👏👏👏

Her agent that let her get in trouble to begin with?

I read somewhere that the production team said the novel is not complete but they discussed the ending with the author to get their thoughts. I assume they would know whether it’s completed or not since they had to pay for the IP.

No the novel is incomplete. The production said they contacted the writer to get their thoughts on how they'd have liked to end it.

No shit! I want his hair. But it’s hell to cram it into a wig.

China is an atheist country. They don’t like anything that promotes superstition or religion in a big way, especially Western religion. So modern horror is a big NO.

I think the only hard ban is around modern horror. Ancient ghost stories are tightly controlled. If its part of mythology or a classic its maybe ok but still tightly controlled. Most productions don't want to risk it, its just easier changing ghosts into demons.

Yeah this genre has made a bit of a comeback since the popularity of Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty. Painted Skin is in this genre and so is Fangs of Fortune. They used to make tons of this stuff until the regulators banned ghost stories.

I wouldn't have minded that but I understand why it doesn't fit in with the drama's theme.

I think they definitely shot both versions. I mean even Banxia's name (Midsummer) suggests she is a hybrid or in-between. I know some people were translating it literally as pinellia ternata which is technically correct but that is a poisonous weed and omg ridiculous in the context of a character in an ancient fairytale. A not Google or AI translator would use the poetic translation.
They even opened the possibility that Xuanye is half human by writing Zhongzi as his half brothers. But in the end the entire drama is built around the relationship between humans and demons so I think it would have been cheating to go with Banxia and/or Xuanye being a half demon so I guess they scratched that idea.