Saffy88

watching on netflix cos I don't have to airplay it on the tv

Huang Chao

I kinda get the impression he's still relying on his looks more than honing his acting skills. Altho to be fair he's not as stiff as I thought he would be here.

Hmm art director did House of Flying Daggers too - one of my all-time favourites.

With domestic cdrama fans, (who are the main fandom that count for the chinese streaming platforms and the chinese stars), I feel one never knows - could go either way. They can sometimes fixate on the strangest things and their ratings on douban can be way harsh .

Oh and I just remembered Han Pu in the novel was given a choice as to whether to follow BFX of HFX and he immediately chose BFX cos he seriously felt HFX would sell him out/off at some point. They only included the latter half of that conversation in the drama, not the choosing - but it's another telling sign of HFX's moral ambiguity at that point in the story.

Umm - need a Chen Kun-level actor to pull it off maybe 😊

And fan sensibilities - never know what fan backlash will happen if characters are too morally ambiguous or dark..........

Haha - me too! I mean ok maybe they wanted to highlight the seductiveness of HFX, but really it just starts off too early in the drama when they are still the bickering rivals. On the other hand if she were to progress from Black Fox to Black Foxy as she falls in love with him, that might have worked.

HFX/FLX is certainly more grey in the novel. I'm only part way thru' but BFX in the novel has a lot of misgivings about wholeheartedly allying with him because she knows how ruthless and machiavellian he can be. For eg he got all his irritating schemy siblings executed as well as his father injured more or less fatally and thus everyone exits quickly and cleanly for him to take over the throne. Definitely don't think they would want to portray this in a cdrama - would probably get backlash from the fan legions, not to mention just too dark for the censors.

Yep, should be HC vs FLX (+BFX), although now they've made YWY the no 1 villain, not sure how that will play out in the drama's plot.

He's narrow-minded in the sense they use/translate in cdramas - as in he only cares about his little sphere of influence and the balancing of power politics within his realm and does not have a breadth of vision. Perhaps better to say he's narrowly focused....... he does not have greatness in him and I don't see him in the same league as Huang Chao for eg. This is not to say that he isn't smart or vicious - but just in a dog-eat-dog way.
As a parent he's more or less the usual stereotypical calculating/ruthless royal parent, altho there are other parenting models in the story. In the novel at least, BFX's royal family is portrayed very differently and the opposite of HFX's imperial family. So there are other possible ways for HFX's father to behave. The novel also explores this a tiny bit as it has him reflecting that his life of grasping for power at the expense of personal ties and affection has led to him having nothing of value at the end of his life. Will be interesting to see if they will give him the same opportunity to add some depth and self-awareness to his character in the drama.

Stripper name🤣🤣

Exactly - king just wants to be top dog for as long as he can and sees the world only as a dog-eat-dog kind of place. Narrow minded/narrowly focused and terrible parent about sums him up.

That's probably why they keep on flashing their names and identities, must have realised ooops they all look same same 😂

I wonder if that's the atmosphere in the novels - 3 different teams produced Longest Day in Chang'an, Luoyang and WBFL but they all have similar look and feel in terms of atmosphere and colour grading..............

There are free subbed eps on the iQiyi app.

Have seen Sun Yi in Twisted Fate of Love - oklah, not the strongest actress around but still miles better than Angelababy...........

Yup I was just thinking it's strange that all the Ma Boyong adaptations have this look despite the fact all different production teams. Oh yes, my lasting impression of Luoyang was that everything and everyone was constantly moving, running around like lotsa headless chickens.
I'm still finding it a little hard to take Mi Chong completely seriously cos I still keep thinking of him as Si Ming from Eternal Love.......but the character is great - an intelligent and deadly opponent.

A true spy thriller - kills are executed without any needless posturing and at lightning speed. Chen Kun and Bai Yu are such a pleasure to watch.