PeachBlossomGoddess

I feel Chief Ke is too obvious but I haven't been able to completely cross him off my list yet. I just think that as the Station Chief of the Hunan Military Control Commission, he can sabotage Changsha's defences in so many ways he doesn't need to do it this way.

I also feel Kunwu is older so its possible he is only one of his underlings. But I have more or less eliminated both Uncle Yang and Asst Wu as Kunwu because in the beginning, Kunwu didn't know if Muzhi was dead so he ordered Hongshen to be watched. But it is Uncle Yang who asked Muzhi to fake his own death and since he confides in Asst Wu completely, I assume they both knew Muzhi was faking it. So I think neither of them are Kunwu.

Hahaha, Uncle Yang is Sikong Changfeng in TBOY! No wonder he looks so familiar!!! He definitely can't be Kunwu then!!!

I think Kunwu is a bit of a lone ranger and this is pre data surveillance age. So he can't monitor everyone all the time. I don't think the errand boy is the only suspect but I added him to my list bc he was at the scene for that sketch. I think all the more obvious suspects are just red herrings and the real Kunwu is someone not that significant who hides in plain sight. Ke JP is the most obvious suspect at the moment but truth be told, he doesn't need Yun Hongshen to plant a fake military attack plan. He is in a position to easily muck up Changsha's defense strategy without going to any of this extra trouble. I can make the same comment about Yang and his assistant. They are already insiders if any one of them have already betrayed their country, there is no need for the Japanese to go to extra lengths to set up this grift.

I thought this started well but then the writing sagged and hasn't recovered. I don't think its a bad show but since the convoy attack, I find that I am bored half the time. Rise of Ning for all its issues kept me more engaged throughout.

Well the errand boy saw that. I need to replay that part to see who else witnessed that. Kunwu has to be one of the persons on the scene.

This channel has a 5 part summary of the novel that explains everything. I think the first one may have been taken down for copyright but the rest are there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfaw3cHihqQ

Yeming also has a female sidekick. I don't know what her name is.

What is scary is Kunwu was watching them and sketched it. I even am starting to wonder if he is Hongqi's sidekick errand boy.

Tyvm. The flashbacks were indeed not the best way to tell the story at all. And Zhang Zhe was her first true love in the book, they just cut all his parts down to the bare bones in the novel (according to book readers). It was a long book, I guess not easy to adapt in 40 episodes and do justice to all the characters.

My all time top dramas are NIF, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (xianxia), The Rise of Phoenixes and Joy of Life. You may like TMOPB, Love and Destiny and maybe even Lost You Forever a bit more than TTEOTM which I thought was not bad but I think you will like it less than I did. Mysterious Lotus Casebook is a pretty good mystery wuxia, one of the better ones. I also think Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 1 and 2 are very good. You could also try Sword Snow Stride, it is like BOY a high fantasy wuxia with a lot of politics. If you liked The Double you could try Story of Kunning Palace, Destined, New Life Begins and Blossoms in Adversity. A bit too romance focused with unrealistic tropes for me personally but I found them entertaining enough.

Its no bother at all - hope you enjoy!

Yes, it is very good. It is my top drama right now.

Yes LON had a much more complex script and better villains. I love good, smart and complex villains, I think they are what make a good drama bc they elevate the heroes.

Xianxia is a very specific sub-genre of fantasy that is deeply rooted in mythology, philosophy and culture. I would say more of the endings tend to be open or sad. But xuanhuan or fantasy more broadly is not subject to those same rules. I just get bored bc there tends to be a lot of world building in them that I don't have patience for. I suspect they may be more prone to have happy endings.

Chinese have a broader interpretation of good and evil and they do tend to co-exist - it is just yin and yang/male and female. Its not exactly good and evil but it is close enough. So evil cannot be completely eradicated it can only be suppressed. It usually begins in man's heart and it is part of a cultivator's journey to harness and suppress it or in other cases use and abuse it. So even dark beings have goodness in them and even good beings are capable of evil.

I keep ranking lists of dramas I have watched by year under my profile. They are mostly costume dramas. I don't watch that many xianxias. You can check them out but just be aware I am fine with sad endings even though I don't seek them out.

My bro loves them. I used to watch with him years ago while I did other stuff at the same time.

Sounds interesting. Not a huge fan of cooking shows I don't have the patience for all the elimination rounds. But I may watch the start and skip to the end. Thx for this.

Lol - he finger bleeds profusely due to an overly rich diet? In the grand scheme of things, this makes more sense than coughing blood.

👍👍👍

The xianxia universe is defined by Buddhist/Taoist philosophy where all beings are subject to immutable laws of the universe. The Chinese god pantheon is more similar to the Greek/Roman one where the deities are all flawed and no one is all powerful or all good. Many of the characters like the Heaven emperor, god of war, god of thunder, god of hell and even the mythical beasts etc are based on legends of mythological characters. It is a rich universe so writers don't need to invest much in world building. They don't all have to have sad endings but because the cycle of cause and effect or karma is one of the all powerful natural forces, often bad outcomes are the consequences of certain actions or abuse of power. There are also lots of xuanhuan or (sometimes Western) fantasy dramas that are not based on Eastern philosophy or religion but I am not a fan I haven't watched enough to generalize on whether they tend to happy or sad endings.

I don't think Chinese people are innately pessimistic but they are definitely not as optimistic as Westerners. I would say they are pragmatic and realistic, they don't expect happy endings around every corner. China went through 3000 years of very turbulent history. Historical low fantasy dramas like NIF are set in chaotic times of great internal and external strife. The nation grew out of a collection of many small warring states that got consolidated over thousands of years and countless wars. famine and pestilence and many bloody battles for the throne. It is quite unrealistic to have happy endings if the story is set during those times. Similarly Republican dramas are set in a time China was cruelly occupied by foreign powers and went through 100 years of humiliation followed by almost another 100 years of hardship. Almost all those stories have bad endings, happy ever after endings would be scoffed at as delusional. China is a very highly educated society so the average person is quite knowledgeable about their culture and history. Stories that depart too far from what made sense for the time and the genre for the sake of an entertaining happy ending tend to get mocked for abusing audience intelligence.

All that said, there are tons of period and modern light romance dramas that have happy endings. Most of them are quite unrealistic and and contain historically impossible tropes but they work for light entertainment purposes. They are gaining popularity among young adult audiences, especially the current generation that didn't go through hard times. China makes so many dramas nowadays there should be something to meet everyone's tastes and interests, you just need to know how to look for stuff that works for you.

No worries it’s something you see in China all the time floating on ponds but I am sure global viewers were a bit like hmmmm…. Duckweed???🤨