RilikesWux

IMO the female characters in stotd are not the best female characters out there for sure and probably have contributed to some of the flaws of this drama but they're not major ones as they're not the main leads. I could just easily ignore them as they're not the main dish. That said, at least both of them are intelligent. I'd rather see Pei Xijun than Liu Ran in Luoyang. The latter got on my nerves. She's annoying not to mention useless. I liked Luoyang but her character was poorly-written. To me it makes no sense that PXJ or YT are the main reason why stotd rating keeps dropping on mdl as they're still better because they're not written as damsels in distress.

I think the reason why iqiyi didn't promote stotd might have been because of its supernatural nature that might not sit well with the general audience due to the circumstances mentioned in the article. They may have worried that the audience attitude towards the drama wouldn't be so welcoming. I felt that they tried to convince the audience that stotd is not some nonsensical horror drama as I noticed Su Wu Ming saying "there's no ghosts or gods but humans in disguise" or something like that a couple of times. I thought that's interesting as to why they had to create that line. But this is just my theory based on the article and your explanation. I can become too analytical at times lol. But then it also raised another question that I mentioned before. There's a super hit xianxia in the summer, I believe, which iqiyi had promoted massively. Why did they promote that xianxia but not stotd? I mean both have some supernatural element. So I'm curious where the line is, demons and gods are ok, but ghost are umm not that ok?

Sure! Would love to see that the video on New Culture Movement. If you give me the link, will watch it. Thanks!

She gets better after episode 6 or 7. Her character evolution is not well-written and kind of abrupt. But she gets better.

According to the article, I quote "In Zhou Zuoren’s essay “Humane Literature,” he lists nine kinds of nonhuman topics to be avoided, including gods, demons, and ghosts."
But I notice that they make a lot of xianxia dramas in C-dramaland which obviously involve demons and gods. And they seem very popular. So am I right to assume that demons and gods are ok, but ghosts are not?

I haven't watched both dramas you mentioned so I'm not sure if it's similar to them. Although the drama is led by 2 males but to me it's more like a squad because there are other characters which make them all look like a team of several ppl rather than a duo. You can give it a try. If you like it, that's great. If you don't, you can drop it.

I think it depends on how you define bromance. Is it a close but non-sexual relationship between two men or more than that?
To me their bromance is like older brother and younger brother or teacher and disciple.

From what I've heard, they will start filming in February next year so it's highly unlikely we get to see it next year. It things go well, maybe 2024 at the earliest.

Wow! From 8.3 to 8.0? What has happened? It seems STOTD has failed to impress intl viewers. So far over 129,000 ppl have voted on Douban and over 70% in favor of the drama while on MDL only less than 300 and the rating keeps plunging. It seems Chinese audience and intl have different taste?

I missed it! Time difference.. 😊 But I saw it the next day.

I'm not worried about that. It seems the director has gone live on his social media interacting with viewers a couple of times and he asked for feedback directly from them. I'm sure they pointed out these weak points of the drama which he should consider need improving. Otherwise why bother interacting with the audience if they didn't care about what audience think.

Personally I think the drama is underrated among the intl viewers only because it doesn't features famous actors and it didn't promote itself. Though in China, it's doing comparably better. On Douban over 129,000 people have voted for this drama, whereas on MDL only less than 300 have voted so far.

Well it seems it doesn't turn out that way. STOTD's rating on MDL has declined sharply, from 8.3 to 8.0...

Yeah I think so too.

Thanks for the article! I find the title “Stories About Not Being Afraid of Ghosts" very amusing 😄 I didn't know that ghost stories were considered taboo at one time in China. How is it now? Are these still repressed?

Checked it out. Really look forward to it!! How soon?

On an unrelated note, do you know that LOCH is in the making now? https://mydramalist.com/739239-jin-yong-wu-xia-shi-jie

These folks must have been really persistent 😂

I understand why it took so long to shoot. For each case they had a different set of actors (the Chang'an tea, the Gantang Post, etc). Unlike a drama where they have nearly the same actors from the beginning to the end. I wonder if it will take 7 months again this time.

I think she likes STOTD more than she admits 😉 She has also made an MV for YXW's recent contemporary drama.

I see. I didn't know that.