PeachBlossomGoddess

I kind of suspect Ling Han. He is the only person so far who fits the profile of someone very cruel and scary - the way he tortured that Bai family guy in the beginning episode made me wary of him. And his sniper shooting Zhang Hua was also dodgy. But he could also just be a misguided KMT spy.

Poor HS - he is damned either way. When he confides in HQ, the guy gets blinded by rage and is like a bull in a china shop. And if he doesn't confide in him, he goes poking around where he shouldn't and risks all their lives. There is no winning with this guy. I think he is doomed for sure.

You are totally right but at this point I have been through this enough times to know that Avoiding Spoilers 101 is just don't visit the thread until you are done. Bc all it takes is that one person who posts the first unmarked major ending spoiler and everyone else just joins the party like its open season on spoiling the ending.

But I think their purpose is not Milan but to lure out Kunwu through her. So HS can't confront her yet.

I kind of feel the way Hongqi is written is half foreshadowed to get himself killed.

I think pokai definitely comes from the Canto slang. There is something about tacking on sei that is very therapeutic almost.😂

Mine is a complementary subscription that comes with everything so I don't know what they are charging for anything.

Yeah it was just too much to expect in feudal society a wealthy merchant would leave it all to his daughter when he has legitimate sons. And ZSY was so hard hearted it was not that believable. I would have turned against Li Kui and took him down for what he did.

Very true. And it is hard to expect someone to just turn against their family, even when they are in the wrong.

During tough times, escaping into other peoples troubles so that yours don't feel as bad is also a form of escapism. I remember Chinese dramas from my parents time were almost all tear jerkers, probably bc times were so hard.

Yes of course and there are always a lot of those feel good HE stories but they are usually light romance dramas.

I hear they charged for it again? My Youku is SVIP so I could just click play.

Tyvm 😘

He was such an obvious hidden villain the hoodie was a total waste of a good costume. He had no survival instincts for someone who evaded justice for 20 years. ZSY was obviously a petty and expendable partner whose only contribution was to hawk off stolen goods and so incompetently too. Li Kui should have killed him dead instead of his son. That would have made it a lot harder for ZJR to find the evidence to indict him. Not to mention he wasn't relevant to obtaining the blood pearl which was what Li Kui was after.

The first 16 episodes were the strongest. And then it felt like a different writer took over.

Yes I think CSJ was punished for her sins. The truth is she may have schemed against YZJ but her schemes only blew back on her and let's not forget that she is not the one who poisoned him. In the grand scheme of things, there were way worst villains in this narrative.

Yes they were actually the real dark couple that were just using each other and fell for each other along the way. That part was so well done I was a lot more invested in what happened to them. And I felt killing off ZZH was just gratuitous and Li Kui had no good motive to do so. He should have killed Zheng master instead who had all his/their secrets and who ultimately took them all down. Such a dumb move for a villain who managed to evade justice for 20 years.🤦🏻‍♀️

Well it didn't hurt that this was a very short express package.

That is so true! But LYN is so long I don't even know if that is possible for the Kang Ji actor to pull off!!!😂😂😂

That's an interesting question. There is nothing explicit in the rules that say that but in general, dramas are expected to adhere to a certain standard of morality and not glorify immoral behavior or bad values. So to the extent this happens, its probably self censorship more than anything else. In the past when the industry was flush with cash and didn't care about returns, the productions used to push the boundaries more. The consequence of that is they risk going through many rounds of reviews and costly revisions before finally passing. Nowadays many productions sail through censorship review and I suspect it is because they self censor and avoid controversy so that they can get through to air faster.

But I also think the recent spate of sad endings has as much to do with the current social mood, which has been quite depressed. Unlike the rest of the world the Chinese economy never recovered from covid and unemployment is really high, esp among young people. The Chinese drama industry is going through really tough times, with deep pay and budget cuts. This kind of social mood affects the kind of dramas people want to write and direct which also matches what audiences are in the mood to watch. I guess it would be super obnoxious for people who are unemployed and single with no prospect of marriage to watch a super successful SMZ live happily ever after. A super successful SMZ that is lonely and single and doesn't have it all isn't as in your face.