SagaTeAles

She's so cute... I saw a few clips with her... and she gives me this happy...cute, charming vibe... I think her white tiger character will also be a cute tsundere bickering with Jiuchuan..

😂😂

We are waiting for you 🍽😋🎬

Maybe it comes from his theater background...he spent around 3 to 4 years performing on stage before debuting. Actors often like hearing the reaction from ordinary people too, after the play..not only professional reviews. I used to see that a lot in theaters near me. Maybe it’s similar with him too...still doing that.. tho I don’t know how common that is in Chinese theaters.

Was this like a lock freeze spell?😄

This black and red combo is awesome. Both colors suit him so well👌🤩

You bring an interesting perspective on Chinese viewers and taste. Acc to you, it seems they like to watch “completely unwatchable garbage” in huge numbers.. even tho Douban ppl told them "don’t bother, it’s not worth watching.” I think Florence made it clear how the dramas she mentioned were massively viewed and popular, loved.. but still had 5-something ratings and telling that Douban isn't immune to review bombing, hate-watching, fanwars. So it wasn’t only about the commercial values..tho it exists. VoS also has a huge numbers of viewers and a 5.2 rating..indicating acc to you that ppl love to watch "garbage" as Douban said...speaking about how the taste of so many Chinese people is...let's say, strange, lol.

The rating didn’t turn you away, even though you said Guo is a plagiarist and that his dramas have no substance at all. I personally don’t watch anything purely for visuals, neither Western nor Asian works. Hollow and shallow stories.. with no writing structur, narrative depth, with illogical character arcs, are a big no for me when choosing what to watch. I like gjm' work cause I see real substance in it. I may write a lot abt what i see, from thematic depth, meaningful character arcs, mythological elements he includes to immersive world-building, and deeper themes such as sacrifice, trauma, identity, redemption, morality, etc. The flaws I mostly see in his work are mainly editing choices, pacing and story progression for some arcs which can be uneven etc. But these are just the elements within his overall storytelling and world-building.

You weren’t wrong about the plagiarism, tho. He had one lawsuit about a book he wrote in 2004 as a student, and that has followed him ever since. If you know of any other case against him.. please share. I haven’t found any when searching..esp not related to filmmaking, only that one involving a book written a long time ago.

I agree that ratings and taste can be tricky to interpret. But Douban, like IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes, also suffers from review bombing, fan wars, hate-watching etc. They all have verified accounts ..it helps, but they are still limited and can't stop those problems.

Also, what is important to notice is that xianxia and wuxia have traditionally been rated lower than other genres. Many ppl do not see literary or artistic value in them. It could be that Douban attracts more people who prefer realism over fantasy. It's necessary to change expectations and evaluation criteria when entering the world of fantasy or sci-fi in general. The problem I often see is that many are biased... here I mean people preferring realism to fantasy. For many, realism equals depth, while fantasy equals superficiality. Entering anything with biases often leads to inaccurate conclusions.

For example..you started watching VoS already believing it was made by a plagiarist incapable of creating anything meaningful. That expectation will probably affect your experience. It already has, cause here you are telling ppl who enjoyed it that they only like shallow visuals and hollow stories. Colorful costumes, beautiful people and some fighting scenes and that's about all VoS is...according to you.. This says more about your perspective than theirs. They did see the substance, enjoying it. That you didn't want to see it or were simply unable, not connecting to this type of storytelling, is about you, not them.
Saying there is absolutely no substance is simply not true. But it's not surprising when entering with such a mindset about GJM and his work.

I also noticed that later you shifted the argument from.."people choose based on Douban"..to "the industry chooses based on Douban". From the initial idea of Douban being ...by the people, for the people..it shifted into being ..by the people, for the industry and investors to decide where to invest. But I don't think it really fits xianxia and wuxia productions. Maybe modern and historical dramas, the realistic ones. I can't really judge here because I don't watch such C-dramas, only pure fantasy, wuxia, and some sci-fi. So I've never followed what Douban said about realistic dramas, modern ones.

Xianxia is heavily shaped by commercial decisions. Investors often cast idols or popular names, mainly cause of their fanbases, which guarantees them pre-existing viewers, regardless of acting ability, and they are often made to appeal to a broader audience. It's more risk-free to make dramas with less narrative depth, less complex, full of clichés, often romance focused, simpler dialogues, and simpler arcs, etc.

If the industry truly followed what stricter and harsher Douban viewers say, then we would already be seeing waves of xianxia dramas with deeper narratives, stronger logic, better developed arcs, better acting, more stylized and stronger dialogue, and more complex plots requiring engagement and actual thinking. . The ones not to be watched while cooking or doing smth else in the background. Every new xianxia would then be better than the previous ones in all these elements, cause the industry listens and follows smart Douban people.. But it's not happening. We hear more often how such long dramas are getting worse in terms of stories and casting choices. Personally, the last 1,5 years gave me only some 4 worth watching.. offering more than just visuals or a cliché love story..interestingly rated below 6 on Douban, even lower on MDL, around 8...lol. So I can't really see the idea "from what Douban says into filming industry" at least not within the fantasy world. Maybe you are right about other genres. Maybe I would take them more seriously if I started to watch other genres, but when it comes to xianxia, I don't see them as very reliable sources for either substance or quality..

Thanks..you saved me a reply..Douban isn't for finding good dramas but it's a good place for spotting which directors and actors attract anti-campaigns lol. .

It’s nice that you don’t support plagiarism. Me neither. But it would be even nicer if you learned what plagiarism actually is. It is about taking someone else’s protected work. That is not what is happening here. Both FoF and VoS were written and directed by the same person...that is GJM...not some other creator. So calling similarities between GJM’s own works plagiarism is fundamentally wrong.

Repeating claims of plagiarism/copying when it comes to his work feels more like deliberate framing...maybe not by you...but these claims flooded the FOF page and other places at the exact same time VOS ratings suddenly dropped significantly. Coincidentally...of course. 😏

I’m sure some ppl def know what plagiarism is and are still pushing the same narrative. Even using social media today demands from us to to know what we can or cannot do with someone else’s protected creative work...not our own work... so it is hard to believe how people "misunderstand” what plagiarism is or act confused about it. Yet they still continue with claims about how VoS plagiarized FoF or how GJM plagiarized his own work.

Now let’s talk about something very basic in filmmaking. Directors develop a signature visual style. This means that over time their work becomes so recognizable and distinct that within minutes you can recognize it even without any context. Their distinct visual style and recognition are built.. among other things...through repetition and refinement of their own work. So we notice repeated motifs, framing choices, choreography, camera movements, etc. Directors are explicitly allowed to reshoot, reframe, and rework their own previous work, concepts and ideas. This is standard filmmaking practice.

You say that one actor from FOF designed the one word spell. Do you often take things online at face value? Someone says something and you immediately accept it as truth? I don’t want to go too deeply into how choreography is actually designed...you should know as a drama lover..but actors are usually not the ones creating these things on their own...and here i mean they don't design the choreography ...they don't write their own lines, they don't design the costumes etc. So I wonder what proof you have actually seen that makes you so certain that what you read is true... how the actor actually designed his own choreography and the hand seal gesture..

But with this one hand seal gesture and one word spell...it’s easy to debunk the claim that Neo designed the hand seal gesture choreography and hand movements. I and many others already saw it in YYM...yes, GJM’s work. I watched YYM before FOF...and I still remember how powerful the scene was when the spell was used to trigger the wings...yes, the wings...cause that popular FOF scene with ZYZ using it to trigger Yichen’s wings spreading out was already filmed in YYM.

Here Qing Ming approaches Bo Ya and performs the same hand seal gesture and hand movements...two fingers joined together...brought toward the mouth as if giving a command...then used to trigger the wings for Bo Ya to fly into the fight. So the structure and idea already existed long before FOF. Let me give you another example... the invisible barrier scene between ZYZ and ZYC, with ZYC trying to break through it. Yes, this also popular scene from FOF was also already in YYM.

I know that some fans of FOF...particularly fans of one actor..haven’t seen any of GJM’s work besides FOF and maybe MJTY, they say this .. but they aslo confidently go around parading their own ignorance often in petty and malicious ways to try to influence others with claims that GJM plagiarized. These claims then spread to people who only hear the word plagiarism and...like you...don’t go even a centimeter deeper below the surface to actually see what is going on..Many of these plagiarism claims about gjm are..in essence...about his own work...so they break the definition of what plagiarism is. Yet there are still people who simply repeat the plagiarism claims without thinking things through. Why use their brain when for them it's much easier to just copy what they saw online about GJM copying?

But many who have seen his other work know how FOF contains elements from his other works but esp from YYM. The difference is that I...like many others.. have never even thought of plagiarism or copying. First..cause of knowledge of what plagiarism is...it is quite a simple definition you see everywhere now. Second.. cause of basic knowledge and understanding what standard filmmaking practice looks like..not only with GJM, but with many other directors who have a distinctive visual style. He does what other directors also do and is allowed and acceptable in filmmaking. I love the wing and barrier scenes equally in both YYM and FOF cause small adjustments and changes...like positioning...additional aerial shots...slight camera movement changes, reframing..made them feel like a new experience even tho I still recognize them in fof they still gave me that wow feeling.

Not even once I had a thought omg… Mark Chao, who played Qing Ming..designed his hand seal gesture and hand movements...created that cool wing triggering spell and put the cameras to film the entire wing scene..and now owns IP rights that is now plagiarized in FOF by the same director and by some other actor. To see some people even thinking this way now about the word spel and the same hand gesture, ZYZ..and HMH could even be funny... but the damage takes away the fun because there are still too many people ready to jump on plagiarism claims.
These are serious allegations and not enough people question how ignorant people are in spreading them. I only hope that these people finally decide to step away from any of GJM’s work. Plz do 🙏and spare the rest of us from constantly reading these plagiarism claims and feeling forced to eventually reply to them.

Death note... why did you mention it? Now it's time to rewatch it again to prepare for Jiuchuan ofc🙃

I follow only what you and Yara are posting here...🙂

Yep, just to add that he graduated from the acting department and had been acting in many of Mahua FunAge’s theater plays.
This is also one of the leading production companies for popular stage plays and musicals. But still, ppl will continue fainting in rage over directors giving a role to a trained actor with a theater background.🙄

No☹️..not even rumors about it..

No..only the drama is filmed..

Glad to help. 😄I'm seeing people who feel like you. After the initial joy over the survival rate...ppl started to share the alternative universe view and not happy about what it actually meant for some of the char...so i wanted to offer another one.. within what the last ep establishes..then it comes down to choosing the preferable one..so why not the more hopeful one.

Watching many of gjm's work, incl the lesser known ones..gave me some advantages cause he has a certain structure he follows in every work that isn't so visible to some who have seen only one or two works.

It's not that it's unclear without knowing this..but it helps when knowing from the start where to pay more attention. He leaves details everywhere...not only in the dialogues...where when more layered...they often give me a sense of what ideas might have guided him to know where he is heading. They can also be found within the edit choices... his close up shots... I know people are saying they are face cards...and yeah...they are🙂.but I find they can hold more than that because subtle facial expressions often say more than words. He even leaves details in the lyrics...for some treasure hunters wanting even more details abt
some char arcs ...😄
Btw, about S2.. for me the story ended, but I played with an idea of what the story could be if the same cast gets in. We saw Jilu as humans...but that's also only an assumption. What fantasy novels also have is an arc of someone believing they are human..but their powers were actually sealed by someone. So, lwy could still be a fox demon, not knowing, her powers are sealed within her. I'm not sure what Jiling was when he entered the rift, an old soul..lol.. and what happened to his dragon scale. He gave it to Lwy, but I believe it was used when he got that express package that warp speeded his cultivation within the star stone..

We have LJ finding his own identity..a happy one.. but also finding Jilu, and of course, we have Wuwu. Wsg is leading the Shilin sect and wwy the Formless Moon sect. A new antagonist is needed. Jiu Ying was extremely powerful...nine dragons and two sects were needed to destroy it. But okay...I get it as the demon whose strength increases as it feeds on negative emotions...if we put it in the real world...just letting it to feed on the Twitter folk would basically make it invisible. 😁 But no more in S2. Tho i doubt it will be made..but some food for thoughts..

He has at home hundreds he grew in secrets..😂

What?? He didn’t....oooh… 😭 I liked it.. he gave them that look like...remember all your under the table favors for Gong Zhiyu? Yeah… now watch my step..nd now i know it wasn’t his 🥀🤧

What a cute.. girly shy smile..i need to copy it insted of starting a wrestling match with my umbrella like i usually do..😆

Thanks..this was soo funny to read..😄

Okay, let me try to give another, more hopeful interpretation of the ending.

It is a widely accepted interpretation that Jiling and LWY now live in an alternative universe.. based on the line he told the child about how there are no demons in this world. Yes... this could be a valid interpretation, but not the only one.
His words can also reflect the perspective of the people living in a peaceful and remote region where demons simply never appear, meaning they could still exist but are not revealing themselves in that part of the world. Besides the little girl was yelling that demons are coming....which means the concept of demons is well known in this world. Stories exist..probably spread by travelers who have been to other far away places. This could mean that Jiling and LWY are still in the same universe and timeline as others... just living in a remote and peaceful area.. what looks like a village also mentioned in the song's lyrics.

The ending regarding LJ is by many seen as sad or bittersweet...but what he said leaves..for me, a more positive note. LJ was created out of thoughts obsessively plaguing the commander and was created with a purpose to protect Jiling. But his words now revealed that now not even his missions were purposeful to him..so we saw him reaching the point where he was ready to find his own identity, one that is not based on the purpose given to him at the moment he was created. This ending feels satisfying to me....finding his authentic self.. not just the remnants of what his identity was built upon, but discovering a new purpose of his existence. So the ending leaves two options open...one where he searches for his own identity, and another where he may eventually find Jiling again. This other option comes from the voice he hears...the same voice that once led him to Jiling when he didn’t even know Jiling' name, if i remember correctly...but he just followed the call. With an interpretation where Jiling now lives far away in the same universe and timeline.. he might find him again,...and by doing this finding LWY as well..
As for Wuwu...the fact that she asks WSG who he is shows she has lost her memories. But we also saw her waking up saying she had a beautiful dream...which could be memory fragments of what she lived through. She will hear the full story from WSG, so LWY's existence will not stay hidden from her...and if her dreams continue with fragments of her memories returning, like we saw happening in the past, she might remember lwy herself by the time when LJ finds her and reunites her with WWY.
So these types of endings leave interpretation open to the the viewer...and based on what we saw, none of these possibilities are excluded. Certainty would only exist if we could hear some narrator telling us what world and timeline Jilu now lives in, or if we got more facts. Since that's not the case, all interpretations that are plausible and probable within what was said and seen remain open to choose from to our liking nd taste..more bitter for some, or sweeter for others..I choose the latter 😉
And just a reminder, this is GJM's version of happiness 😊 Until recently....people were praying for basic survival..and we got it... His death score is very high across his work, if not death then separation. And here he did separate some, as a tax for us to pay for giving them all their lives back..but he is more merciful with separation, cause he usually leaves hope that reunion will probably happen one day, so another reason why his ending may also be interpreted as hopeful..he could have easily chosen to show Jilu in modern day Beijing 😁