ShortCircuit

The solving of the wish's side effects went kind of unexplained , just POOF! Wishing Star GODS!! and that was that. And what did blonde guy mean that A'Hong was his beast? Like, what the hell is he referencing so hard?

Also out of the blue, Li WanZhe wants to leave his mom lil' shop and go be a deep-sea working crew (like, he's a bit lazy isn't he? And knowing marine stuff doesn't work like that, you just read a few books and rote-learn them and that's it, you're hired. I get it he wants to be next to Hama-chan, but Hama-chan is supposedly an experienced fisherman if nothing else, while LWZ's experience is restricted to how many times he rode the ferry to the main island and back.)

The sex scenes still hit all the wrong notes for me, though they did do learn a bit about lighting. But they were mostly meh. IDC if it was your cup of tea, it definitely wasn't mine.

The only character I actually care about, other than the trippy manhua writer, is the blonde POOF!! God. It's like they - the God and his "beast" - just decided this little island out of nowhere is their domain and people should suffer for being silly once in their lifetime and pretending they were actually asking for their lives to be completely disrupted and never put back again. Like WHY?! What's the purpose?! To teach HXY that... wishes?!.... have consequences?!

I WISH FOR A BILLION DOLLARS, BLONDE GOD GUY!! GIVE IT HERE!

Pah!

I seriously wanted to like this one a lot more than I ended up liking it. Particularly after that 9th ep. That one was the best of the drama, IMHO. Too bad the rest was deus-ex-machina-ed in, literally.

Yeah, I'm probably not watching it at the right time for me, but it fell a bit flat at the end.

Ep 8: The Hunger Games.

They're freaking hilarious, starving from not eating (anything but rice) for a day. A single day.

YDH, channeling Jack Sparrow: BUT THE CHICKEN BREAST?! WHERE'S MY CHICKEN BREAST!?

What @Arthenha says is true, the main ship is het, supposedly (and it does hit now and then), but the true enemies-to-(almost)lovers is between the two MLs. And THEN there's the (not quite lovers) friends-to-enemies bromance (yes the jilted ex is SO jealous of the current love interest LOL, it's clear even if you look at it from the Moon). It's a BL shipper's perfect drama. EVERYTHING goes.

And each and every one of them is a dream-come-true-walking-the-Earth handsome or beautiful. They look like this (no spoilers, just beauty) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F76_ovLgOOM (this clip hides the perfection that is Li Lun, You'll see).

IMHO there are FLs, and my favourite is the Pei SiJing character, but TBH there's more of a sismance than a het romance LOL.

So yeah, do dive right in :D

Journey With You isn't half-bad. It's a rebirth story, unfinished yet. While not the same emotional hit as TU, they're not hiding what it's about.
https://mydramalist.com/809412-journey-with-you

Also ongoing and NOT BL, though it's Thai, LOL, - Wu. It's kind of an amazing paranormal story, I didn't even anticipate I'd like it so much. Don't expect BL, I'm saying it again - but it doesn't really need it. There's a lot of chemistry there anyway.
https://mydramalist.com/780122-wu

Still not danmei, but sooooo much danmei-coded, LOL, do not miss Fangs of Fortune. Like, seriously. Don't miss this one. It's a smörgåsbord of beautiful people. And then the plot and music and special effects hit.
https://mydramalist.com/755301-the-story-of-mystics

Love for Love's Sake is an honest KBL, and it delivers. It's seriously one of the well-made actual series they've done, worth a watch. And the cast are so cute :)
https://mydramalist.com/753495-love-supremacy-zone

From the top Thai BL dramas that don't show up on your watched list, I'd recc

My Stand-In (based on Professional Body Double, actually a Chinese danmei novel, modern - you'll love to hate the ML and love on the MC with the rest of us, LOL)
https://mydramalist.com/759431-my-stand-in

Top Form - the MC is SO CUTE it hurts. And the story isn't bad either. They're both older actors, and it shows, they have experience and can act. The story is based on a Japanese yaoi manga, so no fear it develops strangely LOL.
https://mydramalist.com/780990-top-form

Reset (there's a Chinese drama, too, with BJT, of the same name, but it's definitely not BL. Still, if you stumble upon the Chinese Reset, don't skip it, it's one of the best time paradox/rewind dramas out there). The Thai drama is about rebirth/revenge and the leads' chemistry is off the charts. I'd have loved it more if I wasn't so jealous LOL.
https://mydramalist.com/781658-reset

STILL. If you're craving actual DANMEI, other than donghuas, there are plenty more beautiful novels (that aren't yet adapted to drama, sadly). Like there's a long list of greatest danmei that's ever been translated. OTHER than MDZS (TU), there are

1. Ballad of Sword and Wine (Qiang Jin Jiu) by Tang Jiu Qing. This is IMHO the best enemies to lovers story ever. Also the sluttiest little viper MC ever. I love this guy. He could torture me to death any day. Highly recommended.
2. The Husky and his White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha/hyx) by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat. This is the bloodiest dogblood twisted danmei that was ever written. There's even a drama ALREADY FILMED but forever shelved probably, because Chinese censors hate us, that's why. (And the leads would have been Luo YunXi and Chen FeiYu, can you FEEL that pain?! T_T) Anyway. Everybody needs to hurt with the rest of us. Read this book. It won't disappoint.
3. The Scum-Villain's Self-Saving System by MXTX (author of MDZS). Because it's HILARIOUS. I mean roll-dead-still-laughing-funny. And the ML is a crybaby LOL. There's a first season of the donghua for this one, still hilarious you can try to see if you like it.

And then, rolling-of-the-top-of-my-head (sorry, I read a lot), Heaven Official's Blessing (there's also two seasons of the donghua for this), Copper Coins (dragons!!), Rebirth of a Movie Star (one of my favourite rebirth novels), There's Something Wrong With the Chief (little madmen and little assassins go together LOL), Sa Ye / Running Free (beautiful coming-of-age danmei), A Certain Someone (this because there's already a drama covering the first half of the novel - The On1y One), How to Survive as a Villain, Dinghai Fusheng (there's a donghua for this one, too), Golden Terrace (another enemies-to-lovers), Married Thrice to Salted Fish (this will take your heart, wring it well and then cut it in a million pieces, but it's a HEA, like most danmei, so don't worry LOL), and so on, and so forth. I could go on for hours hahaha~

Anyway, hoping this long rant gave you a direction for a bit. Though fair warning - there's nothing in dramaland (or not yet) to overpass TU.

He didn't come back to life, he didn't die. The marriage blood-tie with Xin Mei helped him survive the lingchi.

He doesn't see colours, can't taste anything much, doesn't feel pain, etc - that is the curse of the War Demon race. They were supposed to get rid of it after a thousand years but the Gods left and the bridge to heaven was destroyed so they remained like that. They tried to raise the bridge again to reach the Divine Realms and lift the curse and it needed a lot of lives spent - that's the war back then everyone is referencing, and why mortals and cultivators alike hate War Demons.

LQQ found another way to get rid of the curse and is taking his time to go through all the changes in order to become mortal and gain all the things he's missing - seeing in colour among them.

I totally did not see the ROKA Saja Boys' version of Soda Pop but this time about riceballs coming. And they even recruited SeokHo, LOL. That was amazing (and sounded good, too).

Next time do the ROKA Saja Boys' version of Your Idol. The eerie female-voiced war chant theme that totally doesn't sound lifted from the trailer of Dune 3 or The Odyssey or something would be a good intro LOL.

LISTEN UP JEONG JI AN!

:D

What in the actual...

Wang ZhuoCheng (Jiang Cheng) was always mostly into theater than drama or film. Xuan Lu (YanLi) had already had some fame before TU, and has been working consistently since, LOL. Meng ZiYi (Wen Qing) is a star on her own power, has had a lot of FL roles in the years since TU. Wang HaoXuan (Xue Yang) went mostly into short-form dramas, but he plays leads or support, not guest starring or the like. Qi PeiXin (who debuted as Ji Ling) has had a lot of support, guest and main roles throughout the years. So did Zheng FanXing (debuted as ShiZui). Guo Cheng (JingYi) had a lot of support and guest roles, some in S-tier dramas.

And so on, and so forth.

The thing is - the cast was huge, the success came unexpectedly (oh, I expect they DID want to make it a success, and it became so, but it was still a gamble, wich such a high-level danmei IP. They could have been killed off by censorship if the censors even guessed how the drama would turn out, LOL, we got lucky). Most of the actors and actresses are represented by their agents and talent agencies, a lot of them were (and still are) not really lead-role level, or didn't have the resources to get them, so each did whatever they could to further their respective careers. Some managed to gain some fame and used it, others did not, such is life.

And in such a big country, there's a lot of competition for the really big IPs and the roles that will make one stand apart.

It still always gives me a kick when I recognise one of them in a drama, and even if I recognise the voice actor's voice, LOL. Just recently, Bian Jiang (LWJ's VA) voiced Lu QianQiao in Fate Chooses You, and had Jin Li (ShiZui's VA) next to him in the same drama, playing Li MuHan, one of the best charas there, LOL, who also had just voiced Sui YuanQing (the younger madman of the Sui family) in Pursuit of Jade.

So yeah. Success is relative. XZ and WYB made it big - but they were the leads and had the best characters to play, so it made sense. (Also, both have main leads aura anyway, they would have gotten there sooner or later, TU just gave them the right push at the right time).

They didn't cut scenes, it's the subtitles that are too well-pruned and adapted to pass the meanings to int'l fans. The initial fan-TL from way back was more idiomatic (and also TL-ed most if not all of the titles) so it ~felt~ a lot more natural. I wish I could find a fan-TL subtitle to overlap, LOL. But they were all hard-subs IIRC, so probably not available anywhere.

TBH, I like crazy manhwa Seung Ho quite a lot, so I'll skip this drama just 'cause I don't want to see that character ruined. There's no way for his true colours to come through in a drama, given 90% of the happenings cannot be shown on screen, LOL. And without a reason for his madness, Seoung Ho just becomes a mad rapist who gives Na Gyum Stockholm Syndrome and they live happily ever after, which is yuck.

Don't get attacked. I'm not defending him, I could care less and he could cry all the way to the bank about being defended or attacked on MDL, I guess.

So being the/at the bottom is not insulting then? Oh wow. I guess someone defending the people giving the insult could see it like that.

Oh well. Live and learn.

"a play on his name sounding like "bottom"

So she basically called him an ass.

Then "We have a group chat without you in it."

That's a mean girl joke, but who cares. He's a man so he's supposed to take it.

Okay, I haven't watched the show and have no particular interest in this matter - still, in a culture where ~face~ is one of the most important social concepts, yes, I can see why that could cause an issue.

For naysayers - think of it this way. What if HE was the one to call her - indirectly - an ass, and tell her she's excluded from the actual group. Would you still say it's nothing? Do only actresses have the right to feel offended when they're the target of a bad pun? It doesn't even sound like she's actually apologising, more like "sorry you feel offended" or something. What if the shoe was on the other foot, would it still be acceptable?

It did look to me like he was projecting a lot, but I think the manhwa is actually introducing a System to help him. And it wouldn't make much sense that his grief teaches him how to cook when he wasn't able to, before.

(I think the System might be his dad's avatar or something, I don't know, I haven't read it. But if there's any grief about it, his dad would've taken care of him, IMHO).

ETA I'd rec System isekai, LOL, but EVERYTHING I've watched is danmei and you don't watch it, hahaha~ Maybe the Japanese game-horror Alice in Borderlands series would fit, but there the System isn't helping just one player (as is usual in such stories), but guiding the whole game and the players can be victims of it.

Solo Leveling is in production, last I've heard, also haven't read that one, though I was planning to (not enough time). Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint was filmed as a movie, I think, also haven't read/watched it yet and I don't know if it has a System in but there's a bit of that kind of story in it.

For other people, who WOULD watch some System drama that IS danmei or BL - Love for Love's Sake is amazing, and also, obviously, The Spirealm. And if you're into donghua, THE BEST in the game is Scum Villain's Self-Saving System :D

I don't know who dressed them (and after the debacle with the unreturned dresses from a week or so ago, I'm already afraid to ask) but those ball-gown Disney-princess style dresses don't really flatter any of the actresses, IMHO. They're way too voluminous for their slim figures. The mermaid and simple form-fitting dresses look way better.

(The worst is that white atrocity, where the dress stays firm and angles away from the natural body. Okay they're petite women, not a lot of breast to fill that form, but EVEN if they were bigger, that dress would've stood sieges and not bent anyway. So just get them something that flatters them, what the heck).

As for the men, what can I say... So it wasn't an accident, that black-and-white monstruosity from the Baeksang Prizes. I was hoping it was going to be one-and-done. I guess not.

So, Are all high couture collections forgetting we do have colours in this world, AGAIN?... Dammit. Oh well, at least they've allowed some pastels. But dammit, they are all either too fussy or too boring. Or pure ugly, I don't care, it is what it is.

Ooh, I know this one, ask me, ask me!!

(I'm not an actor).

Interviewer: Why did you pick this work?
Myself: MONEY,

Let's be honest, there's artistic independence and personal interest, and career choices etc - but it's mostly money, LOL. Why doesn't any one of the actors ever say that? Let's make this an honest answer that nobody freaks about. And let's use it in every industry, all over. Because that's why we all freaking work - we need money to get whatever we need/want that is bought with money.

Door locks will save you. Hang in there, you'll live alone sometime and then it's binge-time.

I got hooked on TU in the first 10 seconds (because WWX on that cliff with that sad smile was all it took) LOL.

No, there's no "easy" hook into NiF, you have to watch it from the beginning and go with it, slowly, until it gets where it's going. The journey is worth it. It just takes patience. All the characters are important. This too is based on a novel, and it fortunately follows the plotline well enough, so if you're stuck, you could try the novel. But the drama is amazing, I highly recommend to anyone to just give it a try.

There are a gazillion webnovels and webtoons and now even dramas where the hero(es) get transmigrated into another world or timeline or reborn etc and then they have to do things according to the rules set by the System - or at least use the System of the setting to get ahead/survive/level up/return home.

I haven't read the webtoon/manhwa of this one, but it looks like SeongJae does have a System to guide him through upgrading his kitchen skills, LOL. And it's hilarious :D (And I need that System too, ASAP. Where do I get one?!)