PeachBlossomGoddess

For sure in terms of the friendship and adventure. The main difference is it doesn’t take a heavy political turn and the fight scenes are better with none of that fantasy level CGI. Although I think all that beautiful spinning around by Cheng Yi is not that effective a method of swordplay other than to dizzy the enemy to death.

Well you may be further advanced in it but so far it seems an attack against superstition more than religion per se. And so far I haven’t seen comments taking offense at this on any Chinese sites. Most viewers find it funny and clever, After all these are long as in thousands of years outdated practices that bear no resemblance to the kind of Taoism or Buddhism practiced today which are more philosophies than religions. And China is officially an atheist state and the vast majority of the country practice folk religion which is basically ancestor worship.The only remotely religious holiday in China is tomb sweeping day. Buddhas birthday or Wesak day is not a holiday,. As someone who grew up in an overseas Chinese Buddhist/Taoist family I personally don’t find this in the least offensive although I can see the propaganda.

You may be surprised. China allows freedom of religion after age 18 only. Minors are not allowed to frequent places of worship. As a result, I have numerous mainland friends but none of them are religious or superstitious. Rather than be offended, the mentality reflected here will more likely resonate with them. But I agree with your observation that this speaks loudly to CPC propaganda on religion and superstition.

For sure but those also have several hundred thousand votes.

It was well deserved 👏👏👏.😃

Douban 7.9

I thought JOL opened higher but the long wait for S2 must have hurt it. SSS got knocked hard for the slo no martial arts.

I am sure you must have heard about Erlang shen growing up and the horrible Daji. The book was read to me and/or I read different abridged versions of it many times growing up. My dad loved telling stories from this collection. I read it properly when I was older and it was a big messy, incoherent collection of myths and folklore where later chapters often contradict earlier chapters. By then, I was old enough to realise that actually they were all just normal people who died heroically to overthrow a despot. And became canonised as gods with legendary powers in gratitude by the ordinary people who wanted to remember their sacrifice forever. Thats how legends and gods are created. An incoherent adaptation of it would ironically be true to what it is!!! Anyway I can't wait to watch it.

Sadly it hasn't come to HK so I haven't had a chance to watch it yet and I know the book is one hot incoherent mess but its still a favorite childhood collection of Chinese myths and legends. - I always liked it more than Journey to the West. Even when everyone was saying it's gonna flop after all this time I was thinking I don't care if it's a movie about the investiture of gods I am gonna watch it for sure. I don't think it is possible to make a version of this that I will hate.

Not there yet but will keep an eye out for it. I heard the movie is dated and was expected to be a flop but turned out to be a hit...?

I checked to see if it was a typo !👀😂

I think the best Douban rating is around 9.5 for Nirvana in Fire but tbh above 9.0 ratings are very rare for Douban. Douban ratings are tough - anything over 7.0/7.5 is already considered quite good. The other drama's you asked about Douban scores are on their respective MDL pages - don't want to appear to be knocking/comparing other dramas here.

It is like MDL or iMDB but Douban has 300mm monthly active users in China so their ratings are based on a large number of votes.

Yeah I think it’s only a partway rating it can go up or down depending on how they end it. Too long a wait could hurt if the first half is better but people forget how good it is by the time it finishers. Let’s hope part 2 comes soon. I still have a few episodes to go for part 1 bc the express is not available on AppleTv.

It’s one of China’s widely used drama and movie rating sites.

No not LYF but Tencent has a reputation for sitting on the rating of dramas that didn't do well for a long time (like months) after they have finiished airing. LYF was released fast bc it was very good for an opening rating.

Heheh... at least Youku opened it. Tencent just sits on the ratings when they don't like it for as long as they can. Which is so dumb bc everyone knows when the rating is held up it must be no good.

Opening Douban 7.6 on 177k votes.

😂😂😂 - a few are out including Anle.

Douban 8.3. with 19k votes.